Master of the Wind

Heh. It's actually possible to find that secret text at the tower door without messing with the project files. There's a scene in Arc VII where you briefly return to the monastery. Going to the tower then displays the text, since at that point you don't have the key any more. I thought this was just some obscure joke, but never knew the player isn't even supposed to be able to access that bit of dialogue at all.

Regarding the more serious topics: Although it's a little disillusioning, I think you make a good point about satire. While I enjoy satire a lot myself, I too noticed that instinctively I can be very selective about when I take it seriously and when not. Specifically, when someone satirises people or ideas I disagree with, I will usually find it funny and feel that what they said is so true. But when viewpoints or groups that I am more sympathetic towards are being ridiculed, I often brush it off as exaggerated or cheap shots with no real substance behind them. So if many other people's brains work similarly as mine, I can only assume that actually convincing people to question their beliefs by making fun of them isn't likely to work in many cases. Kind of sad that in protecting itself from damage from the outside, our psyche can also make it so difficult for us to connect with others sometimes.

And that's also true for the other problem you mentioned. Personally, I believe political correctness is a good thing to a large degree, because I don't think adapting the way we talk to and interact with others is an unreasonable price to pay for making fellow humans feel more comfortable. But as always, when we get too invested in something, we run the risk of starting to care more about the thing itself than about its purpose. If we are ready to hurt others over a disagreement about what words could potentially hurt others, something went wrong on both sides. It's the same with other interests or topics we get passionate about, such as for example video games. I don't see any issue with people having debates and in-depth conversations about topics they care about, serious or not - on the contrary, actually. But when we start treating those phenomena or objects with more care than the humans they were created to benefit, then we've got our priorities seriously messed up.

Getting back to the game, I definitely agree that for purposes of suspense, having a mysterious adversary appear from time to time can improve the atmosphere a lot, if handled well. And if it's an enemy who gets into debates about principles with a protagonist, like happens here, that makes it even more interesting.
I've got this inside joke with a friend of mine who is also a huge MotW fan. He told me that during his playthrough, every time he heard Ariel's theme, he freaked out a little because he knew bad things we going to happen. So when we see each other, I sometimes play that music to mess with him. Shows how much of an impact a well-written reappearing archnemesis can have on players as well.