But lets agree to disagree

Sure that's fine with me.

why would you potentially hurt arguably the best experience in the series for the worst?

First of all that's incredibly subjective and I say this as someone who considers Ao as my favorite Trails game. Also Ao is such a great game even knowing the fate of Crossbell doesn't invalidate all of the other great aspects of the game.

The charecter development, major twists/reveals, and hype moments aren't spoiled in the slightest. That's what makes Ao so great and I don't think knowing what happens in the literal final minute of the game(also it's pretty obvious) ruins any of the positive aspects I mentioned above. Also it's not even the biggest twist in the game. Cold Steel 2 barely covers Ao's highlights, there still so much to see even knowing that twist.

Also I agree with you on this, if experiencing the series all the way from the beginning you should definitely play Ao before CS2. However the op is starting with CS1 and I think playing CS2 before going back will personally be the better experience. A lot of the investment the Op has in the story from CS1 might be forgotten if he goes back and that could potentially harm his CS2 experience, it would just be to disjointed of an experience going back. The op would get more closure playing CS2 first and Ao's still a great experience.

I realized a lot of what I have said is subjective so let's just agree to disagree.

Have a good day.