There really isn't a clear moral choice when it comes to which path Astarion takes, and that was one of the things that made his story so compelling for me. The alternatives to helping Astarion ascend are killing the 7,000 vampire spawn (I assume their souls still go to the Hells?) or releasing them on an unsuspecting Faerun. It's disappointing to get such a satisfying and nuanced storyline only to have this patch put player reactions to A.Astarion on rails.
Why would they go to Hell if you just kill them? If you just kill them, they go where-ever they would normally go, which depends on the person. If you sacrifice them for the ritual, you condemn them to torment under Mephistoteles in exchange for power. While you can discuss the morality of what to do with the spawn, there is nothing ambiguous about the ritual itself. It's probably one of the most evil things you can do in the game. Still, if someone condones it, they condone it.
