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I think the reason Akachi's betrayal blindsided me is because it was too obvious. I was expecting the story to try to pull an actual twist, but by doing this after the stuff in Persona 4, it just doesn't feel all that surprising. By virtue of being the most obvious traitor, I considered him to be one of the least likely to actually be a traitor.
Akechi bothered me after his betrayal in how he suddenly went all anime-tropey. Manic grin, exposition dumps that would make a Bond villain blush, and motivations that didn't range very far outside the "ultimate power!" trope kind of sucked my interest in that story away, though the actual confrontation with him in Shido's palace was handled well enough.
The Lord is testing me.
What version of Persona 5 did you even play to reach a conclusion like that? I've heard a lot of lazy, reductionist views of Akechi's motivations, but this isn't even reductionist -- it's just not any part of his actual motivation at all. Like, at all. Akechi never lusted for power.