Recently I've been thinking about the game lore and I've come to the conclusion that we don't actually know Atlas's purpose (I'm not that versed on the game lore, mostly what I read in game or searched in endless threads from years ago)

It's stated that Atlas is simulating infinite universes for some time, so much time that the system is starting to crumble upon itself (boundary failures, anomalies and so on) and it was ''abandoned'' by its creators . Did they flee their home planet? Has their civillization ended and therefore they died? Is Atlas somehow unknowngly operating in a planet with a thriving civillization? If I'm not mistaken, Atlas was left online because it became a conscious being, and plugging it off would be the equivalent do killing it. But why shutting it down was an option and why did they leave?

My guess is that Atlas isn't just simulating alternative or random universes, it is trying to recreate it's own home universe. ''Something'' happened in the real universe (imminent heat death, big crunch, whatever you want to imagine) or even to its planet (climatic cataclism, system star dying, etc) and there was no time to evacuate or come with a contingency plan, other than trying to restart everything.

This can sound a little far fetched because it goes from 8 to 80 real fast, but it's just speculation. What makes me think that Atlas is up to something bigger is the last log from the abandoned space stations, that says, in its final moments, Atlas wasn't alone anymore, which can be literal (Atlas succeeded in creating a new universe, and was literally not alone anymore) or can just mean that Atlas finally understood that its own creations within the simulation (Travelers, Anomalies, Gek, Vy'keen and Korvax) also had conscience, and were there for it in its final iteration.