But you’ve again shifted from the Christian practice of asking those alive in Christ to pray for us to the pagan practice of actually praying to the dead (ancestral worship).
If you keep the two concepts separate, then in is clear that the Christian practice affirms Christ’s victory over death.
There’s another thread about heresies in Mexico with the syncritistic combining of pagan beliefs and practices with Roman Catholic ones.
The historical evidence indicates this is what happened that resulted in the RC custom of praying to departed saints.
THAT is the critical issue, to me. The distinction about praying to ancestors for the pagans vs the Christianized version of that seemingly seamlessly added on by the Roman early Christians is not a redemptive distinction for the pagan practice. Prayers to ancesters by the pagans included the presumption that the ancestors were able to hear their prayers. So, the distinction is mostly hollow to begin with.