>>58716403The way they were conveyed was a mistake. Masuda wanted the truth of their lore to be more ambiguous, and mentioned in his notes that they didn’t actually create the Pokemon universe/weren’t actually the gods of time and space (similar to what he mentioned in the RS soundtrack interview about the Gen 3 weather trio). The most you actually get of that in the final is one line from Cynthia added in to the postgame of the third version, that most players didn’t see, so most players reasonably believe
>>58716479 instead.
Also their designs are kind of a mistake too. It’s clear they were only supposed to be “a diamond” and “a pearl” and anything people connect to their designs regarding the themes of time and space are completely ancillary/coincidental. By the time their designs were finalized, we know that the devs were still throwing darts at the wall on what they wanted them to represent (Dialga was Light/Sun/Men, Palkia was Time/Moon/Women etc). So they really don’t convey time and space visually either, regardless of the straws grasped.