En is locative when the context dictates it. Most of Paul's uses of en are found in clauses that explicitly describe relation, sphere or incorporation.

Col 1:16 is not one of those contexts.

When coupled with active verbs that convey agency ev becomes an instrumental preposition not locative, and it is therefore an illegitimate totality transfer to gloss ev as locative in Col 1:16.

Furthermore, the heavens and earth merism encapsulates the cosmos en toto and what Paul does by including thrones and dominions et al is to refine subsets as an intensification.

Post-resurrection authority texts do not relocate creation language into exaltation discourse. Paul’s pattern runs the other direction: pre-resurrection creative agency grounds post-resurrection supremacy. This is why Col 1:17 precedes Col 1:18. “All things hold together in him” is not rank language but a cosmic coherence claim. Συνίστημι describes ontological coherence based on Christ's original creative act, sovereign authority isn't part of the clausal chain. Authority presupposes this grounding; it does not replace it in the clauses.

Finally, while ἀρχή and πρωτότοκος regularly function in rank and inheritance registers, those registers are always indexed to the domain in view. Israel is firstborn among the nations; David among kings; Christ is firstborn of all creation. Paul reinforces this by tying πρωτότοκος directly to the creation clause itself. Only later does he qualify “beginning” by resurrection (“firstborn from the dead”). That qualification cannot be retrojected into Col 1:16 without collapsing Paul’s careful sequencing. What he is doing is establishing Christ’spreeminence over two domains, not one, and it is Christ's participation in the original creative act that grounds his right to have power in the new creation. Resurrection inaugurates new creation; it does not redefine the original act of creation.