Spoilers??
"The way most characters rejected scriviner after elder's passing felt unnecessarily cruel."
Hard disagree. If anything, I feel like it's a fairly realistic reaction. Death, especially a traumatic death like this, can take a heavy toll on people. One of the five stages of grief is anger, which can cause a person to act not how they normally would (ex: more hostile) and can even cause said person to push away the other people they care about.
Spoilers???
as someone that has lost a family member. A. I cant stop crying. B all reactions are ones ive seen from my own family (i was Ridge but replace the art with poety). One of the major reason i think they push the mc away is the fact they freeze up, and dont have a visual emotional reaction till they talk at the tree. Plus they are an outsider only there just under 3 weeks. (Just adding to the discussion)