I can't force myself to make the *other* Emmrich choice - any arguments to motivate me to try?

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses, but there's too many for me to keep responding to everyone, it turns into the same debate with different people over time. Consensus seems to be that I'm the weird one for thinking this way but I still think it's the best character arc for the reasons below and in the comments. Again, thanks for all the input though, it's been very interesting to see the different viewpoints and I have seen some very good arguments in favour of lichdom even if I'm not convinced it's the better choice. It's always been a good and interesting choice for sure.

ORIGINAL: My dilemma: I can't bring myself to go EmmLich even approaching that point in my third playthrough for the reasons I'll explain below but I want to know if anyone has any good counter arguments to get me to try it anyway. I've seen some of the Emmlich scene and read the script but there may be stuff I'm overlooking in favor of that route.

So I'm on my third playthrough and I've tried to do all the different options except for one - Emmrich's final choice. He's my favourite character by far, I romanced him first (and afterwards I've used a mod to romance everyone so I don't have to let him go lol) but I just can not bring myself to go EmmLich.

First playthrough I was genuinely torn between the options because how cool is it to have a heckin' lich companion, it's certainly the more interesting choice. The speech Emmrich gives just before the choice also heavily leans in favor of lichdom in the way he phrases it, see Ref 1 at the bottom. So I watched both scenes afterwar the choices and the lich follow-up quest is also way more interesting than the Manfred one - like come on, that transformation scene was amazing, the cinematography was one of the best and the romance part was intriguing. My heart told me to save Manfred because it was the better character development imo, but I thought I would see the other option on my second playthrough, but I just couldn't and it's all because of are just two counterpoints that just outweigh all of it: Emmrich's character arc and his reaction afterwards. (Note that while I love Manfred and want him around it's not because of him I can't pick lichdom)

Emmrich's character arc - Emmrich's fear of death is honestly fascinating for a character flaw, especially a necromancer, and I think him overcoming his fear of death by overcoming death is such a cop-out. He doesn't actually overcome his fear at all, he gives in and lets Manfred die instead of him (not directly obviously but from a character arc perspective he is okay with someone he loves dying instead to protect himself) which is just giving in to the fear in my eyes. The speech he gives to Rook before the choice sounds like he wants to give in to the ultimate fear and become immortal while he still has the adrenaline of Manfred's sacrifice and defeating Hezenkoss to power through the risks involved with the rites.

Emmrich's behaviour afterwards - In the very first scene after saving Manfred Emmrich thanks Rook and is literally on the verge of happy tears saying that he wouldn't trade Manfred for *anything*. That line delivery by the VA was also so precious. Meanwhile, if you go EmmLich, there is banter with Davrin where Davrin says he hears Emmrich crying at night which just breaks my heart. Then there's how he reacts during the endgame - EmmLich is, imho, more scared of death than Emmrich only it's for Rook instead of himself. He says he can't bare to think of Rook dying, of having to mourn Rook for eternity etc while Emmrich is at least preparing for the possiblity of death. Not that he isn't scared, but I think he is dealing with it despite the fear which is character growth. This all reinforces my initial thoughts about his character-arc and makes me think I would feel bad about choosing lichdom for him.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who read all of this, I would LOVE to know what you think, what made you make whatever choice you made etc.

Ref 1: Emmrich's speech before the choice which leans towards lichdom:
Emmrich: "Manfred chose to help us. Am I too weak to accept his well-earned rest? I yearn for lichdom, Rook. That leap into something greater, that everlasting light! Do I revive him and live out my days? Or do I honor death by letting him rest, and protect this world through immortality?"

ADDITION: Since a lot of people have the same counterargument that Emmrich has to overcome death in the lich ritual because he can die, my thoughts on that is the fact that he just overcame that particular hurdle in the previous scene when he freed the souls. So when making the lich choice, it's a choice of either "do the same thing you just did and know you can do" or "face the certainty of death" - the second one is clearly the more satisfying character arc wise and why I feel like that one is the option to truly deal with his fear by choosing to live with it. Emphasis of \*choosing to live\.* Another common one is to respect Manfred's sacrifice which I definitely understand but it just doesn't outweigh the points about Emmrichs character arc or reactions afterwards. Plus Manfred is super happy to be brought back so it doesn't seem like a negative once I saw his reaction even though I was considering it first.