Its true that claude not being awake and this sudden mass chaos is really tough to read but I read a comment a while back that because of this, though its going to be hard, we can really see athy build character and handle things on her own. Before when claude and lucas was there she had a limit on what she can do and didnt really have much things to worry about, but now we can see her build character and handle challenges.
I really love how they gave us the backstory to how he fell in love with her. The manga made it so its clear shes not just seen as someone he decided to lust after. He cares for her and its all just really lovely. Seeing his backstory made me like this story and the characters a lot more. We saw and learned more about both the main characters personalities.