I agree that the clip show in this episode is more justified than they usually are, but I still think it’s too much. If it was just for the purpose of Yggdrasil illustrating its point to Craniummon, there’d only need to be flashbacks of brief, key moments – /just/ Mercurimon’s death, /just/ Kurata fusing with Belphemon – and not any of the surrounding parts. As you said, including things like Mercurimon in his dying moments talking about how much he loves Ikuto, and Masaru and ShineGreymon fighting together to take down Kurata, really goes against the point Yggdrasil is trying to make.
I agree that the clip show in this episode is more justified than they usually are, but I still think it’s too much. If it was just for the purpose of Yggdrasil illustrating its point to Craniummon, there’d only need to be flashbacks of brief, key moments – /just/ Mercurimon’s death, /just/ Kurata fusing with Belphemon – and not any of the surrounding parts. As you said, including things like Mercurimon in his dying moments talking about how much he loves Ikuto, and Masaru and ShineGreymon fighting together to take down Kurata, really goes against the point Yggdrasil is trying to make.