Yes, even with the lies of Yevon exposed, it's hard to believe that people abandoned sacred places quite so quickly and drastically.

I feel like X-2 may draw on some of the jarring changes in Japan right after WWII, which transformed Japanese culture dramatically and vibrantly over the course of a generation... but it didn't change that fast, and sacred places still retain some reverence. X-2 seems to exaggerate that generational gap to a caricatured extreme.

Then again, its players are too young to remember the culture shock of their grandparents (or, at this point, great-grandparents).