Hello! Sorry for the super late reply on this. Thank you for taking the time to play and comment! It makes me really happy even this attempt was compelling and interesting. But yes, it was a very solid lesson in how perpetually branching endings become awful to manage ...
I think if I try again I would definitely merge the paths as you suggested. I'd have to look into how to do that with Ink, or else change engines to... Twine maybe....
Appreciate the feedback!