Maybe I just didn't play long enough in-game time, but I never saw Alduin turn into a giant space dragon and physically eat the world. And I was under the impression that's what the World-Eater does. Since the world never ends if you don't progress though the main quest, is it safe to assume that Tamriel would be safer by ignoring the main quest? I mean, the entire Oblivion Crisis would never have occurred if the champion just took the Amulet of Kings to the Shivering Isles and thus kept the daedra invasion limited to Kvatch. Since there's no consequences if you ignore the "world-ending threat" in the main quest, we'd potentially save more lives by running off to chase butterflies.

Bah, I think the MQ was poorly written. Alduin never struck me as more than a more powerful nuisance, and I've had the belief he earned his moniker by eating souls. He has less of a presence than the Archdemon in DA:O (which featured a more credible world-ending threat). He's virtually unknown outside Nord culture. You'd think there would have been something if he was that big of a deal.

Well, Alduin does eat the souls of the dead. Its why he goes back to Sovngarde when you hurt him badly enough; he needs to refuel with souls to heal the damage. This might make people rather upset.

Alduin is also planning on finishing his plan to enslave all the world and bring back the rule of the dragons. This plan to overstep his place of ending the kalpa in the grand scheme of all things is what convinced Paarth to help the humans in the first Dragon War. This plan of enslaving the world might prove problematic in the long run.

[Nothing would have stopped the daedric siege machine from taking Bruma; it was already in the works. The daedra were looking for the heir before anyone knew there was an heir. The amulet really didn't figure into anything but Akatosh's avatar at the end.]