While I agree this is a significant factor, it doesn't help that
@yrsillar keeps creating scenarios where support play is impossible or objectively worse, and not just for Ling Qi's slipping capabilities in that area.
The bandit arc is an example of this. Ling Qi basically single-handedly wiped out the bandit force, without the leader stepping in until the last moment when our allies crested the proverbial hill, at which point he more or less instantly fled. This meant there was no real clash of force against force, and looking at the outcome it even seriously calls into question the wisdom of the enemy commander. And yes, Hanyi and Zhengui did contribute to the initial scrum, but you can't seriously tell me they really mattered. Support strategies were fiat impossible during this arc, despite being a rare instance of cultivators being fielded in numbers.
The more expansive example is the second sect military operation village defense arc though. We picked the most obviously/potentially teamwork oriented assignment in choosing to defend static points manned by soldiers. After that though, and this definitely benefits from hindsight, every single "fight with other people" option until
maybe our very last one would have had significantly worse outcomes. Staying put with Xiulan and Zhengui would have helped protect the handful of casualties that happened there when the swarms started riling up, but both other villages would have suffered catastrophic additional damages; abandoning teamwork here had no practical cost, so teamwork was objectively inferior, and we correctly predicted this in advance of the (lack of) consequences of the decision. After that, at Shen Hu's village, standing and fighting with the village would have protected from damages dealt by the red Nomad swarm, but endangered the semi-distant Green scout- even in just the context of the one fight, teamwork had ambiguous value involving real trade-offs. The third village would have been fucked, and it's unclear whether the assassin would have made it to our home village and fucked up our friends or popped its head in at the village we were fighting in. This means that there's
at best no clear advantage to picking teamwork, even in the narrow context of the welfare of our own village while we know the third's would have been sacrificed, where it is established fact that not picking teamwork resulted in more or less optimal results across the board. The only arguable "unteamwork" choice with consequences was getting stabbed instead of sharing the risk, but that's a highly complicated and muddled issue which doesn't map to team/support issues well.
I understand there was narrative value in showing the threat of being menaced on all fronts by an enemy larger than we can hope to individually grapple with, it is an important thing to establish, but then requiring Ling Qi to be the omni-present linchpin for grappling with the front we found ourselves on is counterproductive to the intended themes. Showing off Ling Qi's mobility didn't play to the narrative strengths of the village defence choice either, relative to the other options. Yes, she's really fast and that's realistically a huge contributor to her value in warfare, but in practice it was less of an asset and more of a tie binding our hands. And then that obligation was completely vindicated by the fact that doing anything else would have been abject failure in comparison. There would almost be a theme of playing to your strengths in here, except that tarpitting and delaying enemies was narratively highlighted as her area of extreme expertise, and it would have resulted in a destroyed village and potential dead Green scout if used when the opportunity arose. Instead, Ling Qi single-handedly charged the enemy host that had been overwhelming the second strongest village's defenses and came off with only a few scratches, despite not even using her theoretically most potent anti-group attack screening Art in the effort.
The thematic flow and incentives are a bit of a mess.
