In thinking about the Umineko realities, I’ve been trying to draw parallels with how the Higurashi realities (trying not to get too spoilery here). Which was why I was thinking that Ange helping to solve the game would lead all roads back to her 1986 version. However, these being two separate stories, perhaps that’s not the best way to think about it.

The 2 Anges after the “split” are definitely connected though. You can look at them just as you look at the 2 versions of Battler we see: While his Meta-self can’t influence his real life counterpart, he can experience the events that happen to him. I hope you don’t consider this a spoiler, but certain events that have yet to happen to 1998′s Ange will definitely influence Meta-Ange.

Wouldn’t Ange winning the game and returning Battler and her family back to 1986 erase the existence of the current unhappy Ange though (and all the other parallel realities where Ange might be unhappy and alone)?

For me, the decision basically comes down to this: do you want to be with your loved one forever in hell, or do you want to give life another chance. Not necessarily the easiest of decisions, but it shines the light on how bad Lambda’s offer actually is.

Personally, I would much rather go for the unknown route than the known route, although I could see Ange legitimately struggle with this choice. It might even be kind of interesting if Ange were to go back and forth on giving her true insight if she were thinking about going along with Lambdadelta.

* One version is whisked away by Bernkastel and now exists in the meta-world, and is battling Beatrice with Battler
* The other version jumped from the roof for kicks, but is now on the run from the Sumadara family. This Ange seems to be taking a more conventional route at figuring out what happened.”

The two versions you described are the same person. Basically, Ange’s journey in the world of 1998 continues after her Meta-self barged into Beato’s little party at the end of Episode 3, and they share the same consciousness. All the events we see happening before Ange’s jump are flashbacks of this Ange’s past (in the future, naturally >_>), and the stuff she does with Amakusa accompanying her are running parallel to her participation in the Meta-game between Beato and Battler.

As for Ange’s decisison on wheter or not to try and win the game: The dilemma here is that she is and never will be the Ange that would get her family back if she were to win, but her foremost desire is to spend time with her brother. By playing with him eternally, she could be together with his brother forever, which is exactly what she wants – but at the price of her family being caught in the endlessly repeating events on Rokkenjima in 1986. If she were to win, however, she would not get to spend anymore time with her brother – Her Meta-self would likely cease to exist, as it is just a piece on a game which would then be over, and her real self would life the rest of her life lonely and bitter anyway.