My understanding of user stories is that they specifically are NOT supposed to start with "as a user", but instead, should start with what you called an "empathy sutra" in a sibling comment.

E.G. "As a single mother of four, I want my children to have a nutritious lunch but have very little time to prepare it" might be the first phrase of a user story for your foodmaking robot.

neither "as a user" nor "As a human being fully endowed with creative and critical faculties..." help the product and tech team understand the constraints and yearnings of the person this feature will serve.

PS: I used to have a PO who would write "As a product owner, I want a feature that does X" and it drove me crazy

So you choose "user" then? If you don't have more information than "user" in your user stories you are already on the wrong path. How about "As a person" for a general case, "As a buyer" in your webshop app, "As a solution developer" in your low-code design studio. Etcetera. (You did not add the /s so I'll answer seriously).

[flagged]