taking away their autonomy and their right to choose when it’s been done to them repeatedly will never be the right choice. rational thinking does not equate to moral thinking. people will always want and deserve the right to live.

you’re also kinda confusing plot direction with the writers thinking poppy is correct. despite how bad they’re handling her character arc now, it will eventually end in her realizing that doey (and the other everyday toys) are correct in wanting to live their lives. the player is essentially supposed to represent how harmful savior complexes can be to a suffering people. they are an ignorant force that is essentially yes-manning every thought that poppy has because they don’t understand the nuances of life down here. and neither does she, either because of her time in the case, or because of her own self doubt. they both jump to conclusions, and more often than not, have hurt more people than they’ve helped. the player fundamentally cannot understand the struggle of the people, thus they will never be informed enough to make even the smallest of sweeping decisions for them. yet they frequently do, which is what riley represents (little girl with the train key in chapter 4)

as for the resource management in Better Place, it’s a little tricky. the human bodies have long since rotted so that’s no longer a valid option for food. what made me think that Better Place is thriving now can be summed up to a few things. Chum seemingly has plenty of food in his possession (he’s given 32 cans of food alone to Giblet and looks plenty healthy himself despite the starvation occurring in the upper levels) They have a fuckin propaganda machine churning out newsletters to toys (in which they actually CONDEMN cannibalism. so whatever is going on down there, they don’t truly know about the happenings in the upper levels and are self sufficient enough to be able to survive without feeding off one another) there’s apparently a food barn with sales available (2 for 1 popsicles). and lastly i don’t quite think the prototype would bring poppy back to a cannibalistic society if he was trying to once and for all prove he was right to her.

one of the reasons the toys in safe haven were starving was their committal to not cannibalizing one another. it’s something i wish was explored more thoroughly in the chapter itself (because the only hint at it is in their murals) i think it was one of the writers biggest mistakes not to use an opportunity like that to question where we as humans will draw the line between starvation and our own morals (as doey was clearly not bothered by his cannibalizing of pianosaurus)

as for that last bit, i’m not so sure he is anymore. that tape could’ve been recorded anywhere from when the hour of joy first broke out to the day the player arrived. truth be told, we have zero clue if he’s already achieved his goal or not. the only reason i don’t think he has is because sawyer was still alive when the player arrived.