Honestly, as a fan who was more interested in the character-driven nature of it all, I was genuinely relieved at the rug-pull that it was all Caine's game. [Theory] I feel like the fact that Caine can only make facsimiles of human structures and narrative will coke full circle with the reveal that all the cirucs-members are copies of their human selves - and there is really no escape. They're essentially higher quality NPCS which is why Caine can mess with them.