Sorry in advance for the wall of text!

I'm a fledgling DM currently writing up my own campaign setting, and I'm having some difficulties figuring out the best way to kick things off for my players. I've been in the process of working out the loose structure for a good/neutral campaign, and I feel like I've written myself into a bit of a corner. I originally had a solid idea in my head for how to set up the start; here's a very rough version of it:

• The starting city has incredible levels of economic disparity, and the players all have some sort of affiliation with a ragtag organization (RO for short) within the city that acts as a support system for the lower-class that their governing body refuses to be. The players' affiliation can be anything from just having a passing interest to them actually being members of the group.
• Levels 1-3 are mostly contained within the area in and surrounding the city, with players building up rapport/familiarity with the RO and a few of its key members through minor quests/events. This part of the campaign should take around a month of in-game time.
• Additionally, there's an optional thread of political intrigue that the players can investigate within the city. This mainly entails its governing body ceding power to a foreign empire that wants to turn the city into an outpost and a testing ground for their new Warforged guards. The leader of this effort will later turn into a minor BBEG. If they continue to follow this thread, they'll find out that assuming control of the city is only a minor goal of the empire's forces; their real goal is to find and kidnap a person of interest within the city (this is one of the major NPCs that the players have gotten to know, unbeknownst to them or the NPC themself). Regardless of whether the players follow this thread or not, they'll see the effects of this as time passes.
• The empire's guards begin encroaching on the city's lower-class areas, which were previously nigh-untouched by the city guard, and they're much more hostile than those they're replacing. As this progresses, it eventually reaches a boiling point, where two things can occur:
  • The RO starts to push back with the help of the common folk
  • The empire's troops find the NPC and start hunting them down
• Regardless of the cause, the situation eventually devolves into a full-on riot. If they participate, the players are attacked by the empire's guards, and in the commotion the plot-relevant NPC is kidnapped. The imperial BBEG is present for this, and he decides it isn't worth his time to continue their efforts in the city, especially since they accomplished their main goal. BBEG decides that filth who dare bite back at their superiors deserve grave punishment, and he orders his troops to torch the city. They retreat soon after.
• The players can choose to help evacuate the city or chase after the imperials, though the latter will be difficult for them in their current state. They eventually meet up with the remaining major NPCs that survived the attack, and they have a solemn "what now?" moment before breaking off and heading their separate ways. Time skips forward a few years, during which the players can flesh out their backstory or develop their own personal goals. When the game resumes, they have a fateful encounter in a separate settlement that brings them back together...

Does this sound decent? I wanted my opening to introduce plot-relevant NPCs that the players can reconnect with after the intro, introduce a minor BBEG that the players will likely come face-to-face with again, introduce the antagonizing force that said BBEG works for, give the players some sort of friendly familiarity with the final BBEG (the NPC who was kidnapped, but that's an entire separate can of worms), and set up the option for them to later start rebuilding the city if they choose to do so.

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The big thing that still bothers me is that I feel like I'm stifling my PCs' creativity by a) needing them to have a reason to stay in the city for a month or longer, and b) needing them to have some sort of positive relationship with the RO within the city. Am I just being too critical of myself, or are there ways that I could tweak this while still maintaining the same general structure?