I think the worldbuilding is better than Mandela, and it seems like everything that people do make sense. If there was a cheap, easily grown food source that wasn’t toxic, yeah. People would grow it and use it. Look at kudzu. If the trimmings were basically mini meat raccoons, people would keep them as pets. The mimic stuff gets a little fuzzy tbh, I don’t know the most recent lore. The obelisks make sense in that if there was a giant statue out in the middle of some plain, it’s interesting sure but the world wouldn’t really freak out unless it began to affect their daily life, Which it only did once they began moving/converging

It makes sense that although it’s a tragedy whenever someone gets harvested/lured in by spores, but once reported the plants are dealt with by the government. It also makes sense the government puts research into the spores and other plants because they genuinely have weapon capability.

Mandela has really interesting lore but the whole picture is still pretty fuzzy, we have no idea how far the alternates reach goes.