I'm just imagining a more ideal timeline where ch2-5 released in bulk like originally intended.
The Weird Route would be even more effective because the Sword Route would be where you first hear the jingle. You wouldn't think much of it until you discover the Weird Route and hear the same jingle and you're like "Oh shit! The fucked up genocides got carried over into the Dark World's 'reality'!". You realize you have to treat these Darkners exactly like those 8bit enemies to >Proceed.
Then you get to ch4 and you see that Noelle is being molded into a blank slate zombie in the Light World and you're like "OH SHIT" and you realize in the end you're playing a video game. Supposedly in ch5 you'll be made to not care about the Light World and see everything as pixels on a screen.
Your first impression might've been that it's disgusting and you don't wanna >Proceed. But you're immediately thinking about why you felt it was okay to murder those 8bit enemies in the first place.
I don't think the player will be penalized for doing the Sword Route because it'll be bizzare game design to make something you can easily stumble into a permanent consequence. But I think we'll be questioned a bit about why we draw a line at what's "acceptable" to kill. If we really have morals if we're only doing good things for the best ending and not because we want to do the right thing. But it's also about the power of fiction and how we are swayed into caring about nonexistent things because the writing makes us believe in them.
inb4 someone replies this too is Homestuck instead of Umineko