Really? You honestly think Geralt would want Ciri to be a Witcher versus having a normal peaceful life as an innkeeper or a cat burglar or a songstress like Priscilla?
Yes I do actually. That's what he wanted to do originally in the books as well and that's what he wants to do in the game as well as evidenced by the Witcher ending and what Phillipa says. It's even what he personally implies quite strongly in the Empress ending until the truth comes smashing down.
The Butchery of Cintra is something mentioned in an in-gqm3 book. The Nilfgaard are really MUCH nicer in this game than before. I'm impressed with CD_Red treating them this way, honestly.
But that's the inconsistency ain't it? Nilfgaard has it's own downsides in TW2 and TW3 but that's individual acts rather then state policy.
What CDPR understood was the North is far worse then Nilfgaard as a whole and portrayed that. Also I feel quite strongly that Ciri Empress as ending is the "good ending", or the one CDPR tried the hardest to sell as such.
Look at what is required to get it:
You first need to take Ciri to Emhyr. If you don't then nothing happens but if you do then you get a good amount of coin OR far more crucially if you decide to refuse the coin ( and you're a jackass if you take the coin ) a very sweet and tender moment between Geralt and Ciri along with a Black Horse, along with more screen time with Emhyr, Ciri, Geralt and Voorhis. Either way you are rewarded for the decision
Then let's look at the political situation, actually winning the war for Nilfgaard. Radovid is portrayed in a very negative light by the game with no reason at all for Geralt not to want to assassinate him besides some foolish notion of hardcore neutrality, but Dijkstra makes it very clear to you why neutrality is idiocy here: They'll come after you and those closest to you soon if you don't stop Radovid.
It's very clear the game pushes you very hard to kill Radovid and with regards to the Dijkstra choice the game also pushes hard there as well to help Roche. in TW2 you and him fought side by and side and bonded, hell you may spend the entire game with a tattoo you got by partying with his men and while even on Iorveth's path Roche saved your life from the Nilfgaardians.
In TW3 Roche risks his life to help you at Kaer Morhen. There's only one "good" choice as the game pushes it hard on you to go down that path.
Finally there's the actual epilogue itself versus the other two. In the Empress ending you have about 20-30 mins worth of content with a decent amount of dialogue with Dandelion, Zoltan and Ciri, also a small bit with Yennefer/Triss. The Witcher ending is considerably shorter and does not feature this, the only character or worth you talk to is Emhyr but it's a short conversation.
On top of that the Empress epilogue has a radically different landscape then the other two with CDPR changing the entire location to winter graphics, a lot of effort probably went into it, and there's the Temerian flags and soldiers around as they've reclaimed their country. It's a peaceful and quiet place unlike in the witcher ending.
Finally Geralt and Ciri say proper goodbyes to each other, either for good or only for a certain amount of time as Ciri will find Geralt, depends on your final dialogue choice.
In the witcher ending they don't say goodbye, but the epilogue slide makes it clear they split anyway.
The Ciri is dead ending is also better then the witcher ending in terms of a proper send off as you have Geralt tracking down the last Crone to recover Vesemir's medallion and throws away his life due to the grief he feels at the loss of his child. You also have a boss fight there versus nothing in the witcher ending and the forktail in the Empress ending.
The Empress ending contains the most amount of content, dialogue and overall effort from the team with the bad ending coming second the witcher ending being the absolute worst of the lot.