Better late than never

[Rynn]

So ascending basically amounts to suicide for the sophont involved, then. They might as well create a Copy and have that being ascend instead.

Do you consider growing from a baby to an adult suicide? One weird part of the ascension process is that subjectively it may take far longer than seen from the outside, so whilst a sophont witnessing a friend ascending might consider the resulting transapient that appears a few minutes later a stranger for the transapient it's been a continuous, step-by-step experience.