YES WE R.

The idea of the end of the world being cyclic, of the world being a Great Wheel, is very much an Asian idea.

Western eschatology (that is, thinking about the End of All Things) are more of a final ending. Ragnarok, Armageddon, etc.

And both of these influenced Hideaki Anno. Everybody knows he's Japanese. Not everybody knows that he's a BIG fan of American science fiction literature. "Instrumentality" is a word he borrowed and put into NGE just as a little shout-out to an American author he liked, Cordwainer Smith.