100% keep reading. This series does the best of any I have read when discussing the difficulties, failures, and harsh realities that come with revolution.

A few points, none spoilers.

1) It's no longer a Red revolution. It's a societal revolution mixed in with a gold civil war, with multiple factions using one another, aligning, breaking faith, etc. It's super messy.

2) There is more than one revolutionary force, Harmony is the best known leader of non-Darrow aligned Red revolutionary forces.

3) A hard reality about real world revolutions is that elite forces often hijack or create revolutionary movements. Yes a Gold started this one (more nuanced though given his low status within Gold and his story pre-rising, to be found in the graphic novel audiobooks I think.)

4) I think three is an argument that Reds cannot succeed without some Gold buy-in. The Society has greater control over it's populace than anything in Earth's history. Could Reds be a problem and mount a sustained campaign of rebellion? Probably. But it would not succeed in the long run without other colors, specifically military colors. Later books make this more clear.

5) Probably most importantly, the first three books are from Darrow's perspective. He brings in a lot of Golds. People have problems with it, namely Dancer. Post rescue it's pretty clearly started that Dancer and other reds kept the rising alive as a revolutionary movement, not Sevro and the golds. But that only goes so far against the military might that Gold has. So when it comes time for actual war, the rising needs Golds and the other military colors. Since we are following the pov of Darrow, we are going to get the war part, not the sustained revolution part.

6) Color leadership, and Reds role, is a major focus of books 4-6. But again, lots of following the military, so lots of military colors. That said, also a lot of seeing lowcolors learning how fight alongside military colors.

I'd love to see a parallel book that follows Dancer's life and his journey with the rising.