"good writing" my ass... You can't have your cake and eat it.
I must agree. In general, it looks to me like the Rebuild movies lacked both vision and direction when it came to what they wanted to be and what their ultimate goal was. The preview at the end of 2.0? That was originally supposed to be the actual movie, but was then changed to 3.0 as we know it. Another example would be Mary: not even the writers knew who she was and where she came from - that was only decided for 3.0+1.0. Even Anno had no idea who she was and simply decided to let the other writers decide that as they went along with the production. There was no agency to her character because she had no motives, no personality beyond the eccentric manic pixie girl routine.
Also, it is quite apparent to me that Shinji's role and responsibility in regards to N3I and A3I were changed between 3.0 and 3.0+1.0, and while people definitely blamed him for the N3I and A3I in 3.0, it is very clear they changed that in 3.0+1.0 to just N3I, which only makes WILLE look even more incompetent and unsympathetic then before. Hell, it appears Kaji Sr. was not supposed to be dead for 3.0+1.0 originally since Takao talks about him like he had met him no more than a few weeks ago by the time of Wunder's first battle. Asuka's anger, as explained by 3.0+1.0, makes no sense: so you were angry he "did not want to take responsibility"? really? So had he followed his orders and euthanized you, you would have been fine with it? What kind of idiotically anime-like reason is this for holding a grudge for 14 years?
The world-building is also a major sign that both Anno and the writers dropped the ball: how the hell did WILLE survive 14 years against NERV and SEELE considering the vast, vast difference in power between them? NERV builds Evangelions by the hundreds and WILLE has only the sea worthy Wunder, Unit-02 and Unit-08. Also, how can NERV muster so many resources for Evangelions when it it was established that they were enormous money pits in 1.0 and 2.0? Who the hell pays for all of this? Did SEELE posses extremely advanced engineering and automated mass production capabilities they simply did not share with the rest of humanity, considering they might as well be aliens? Were they doing so deliberately to weaken humanity? We don't get any answers to that.
And why the hell did they not exterminate any remaining Lilin settlements? WILLE, as we already established, cannot be everywhere at once. They could have simply starved the survivors of 3I and implemented instrumentality at their leisure.
The simple answer to all of this: ass pull. Anno and the other writers wanted the setting for whatever story they eventually decided to tell without actually working to reasonably justify it. They focused too much on the themes rather than the substance of the story - which is logical plot progression and character development. The suspension of disbelief is really broken several times in 3.0:
- Shinji being brought to the Wunder's bridge instead of immediately taken to quarantine. The excuse? Misato could not leave the bridge. The real reason? to establish WILLE's resentment towards him. What if he had been a clone like Asuka and Rei? What if the had a bomb planted inside his body to take out WILLE's higher ups? WILLE aren't just paranoid, they are also stupid.
- Focusing on protecting Unit-01 during the Mark 09 assault but ignoring the fact that Shinji was an obvious impact trigger. I mean, really? Gendo wants to initiate an impact - I think he would go for the easiest way. How incompetent can WILLE be?
- Asuka being a bigger idiot than usual and attacking Shinji in Central Dogma when he was willing to talk. She simply had to explain things to him, but no.
- Kawuro warning Shinji not to pull the spears, but being vague as hell about why he should not. Just tell him straight that this is not the scenario you imagined and stop being vague your dialogue.
- Shinji, pulling the spears, for the simple reason that otherwise the plot would not progress. This was so forced and arbitrary I think the writers should not be allowed to handle any kind of script for the remainder of their lives.