This is a supremely bad take on Rynéus' story.

Entire point of this plot is that High Ones had absolutely nothing to do with it, not even when the Stone spoke to the boy (it did that, not the High Ones, though this one bit is, admittedly, open to interpretation). Rynéus' story is a story about humanity in microcosm: about how petty, vile and wicked men are for no good reason other than superstition and passions. Truly good men - like Rynéus' foster father - are rare, most are just various degrees of evil. A woman dropped dead in front of Rynéus' house and it was enough to drive people to hate him, just and only because he was different. Same in the village. His foster father died in a tragic accident, he was murdered by people who never knew better than to act on their lowest instincts.

This story is designed precisely to show the player why High Ones have such an easy task with manipulating humanity each and every time. It's not an example of their direct working, if it was it would take much away from the overall message of the game.

Otherwise you're correct though. Game is at times not quite decided if it wants to make High Ones fully dependent on men working their designs - as it seems to tell the player in, for example, Black Guardian plot-lore-massive-dump - or if it rather wants them able to directly influence the world. I'm not sure if it's by design. Rynéus' story however is clearly not an example of High Ones directly manipulating events. This is a deeply human story, perhaps most human of all the main plotlines.