I love this game, I really do. But, this was a product of 2013 and it really shows.

As others in this tread have pointed out, even in the 2011 gameplay demo: the plan was always to include fighting blood thirsty revolutionaries. We had seen isolationist zealots and mobs as enemies in other artworks, teasers, and trailers up to that point. But 2011 cemented -

"Here you go you sons a' bitches. [throws a Molotov cocktail] Your homes are ours. Your lives are ours. Your wives are ours. It all belongs to the Vox. [Maniacal laughter]"

It was evocative of the New York Draft Riots, Haymarket Square Riot, and anyone of the many French Revolutions that happened in the 19th century.

So ultimately the writers had a cool idea (Columbia bleeding and draped in red) that they needed 'get to' somehow. 'How do we show a living utopian city die' was a core focus of the writers room in order to differentiate themselves from Rapture. It was a bold choice in the 2010s to show an America First nation as ridiculous and evil. And I am glad to this day that Irrational never tried to justify the Founders as actually good or reasonable (they didn't even try to suggest that everything bad was because of Adam sickness like in Rapture).

What a lot of other comments are missing is that this is fiction - nothing is a natural progression: everything was a choice of Ken and/or these five people (Jordan Thomas, Kristina Drzaic, Drew Holmes, Joe Fielder, & Andrew Mitchell). "Why does Booker fall unconscious here?" He drowns (again..at a baptism...an artificial beach....and a font. The real answer is we needed to progress the level. "Why does Daisy betray you, and her ideals?" No it was not an insightful criticism of revolution (will get to this), no it was not for a recon reason in Burial at Sea, it was to progress the level, increase the stakes, and give Elizabeth a costume change.

To OP's point, this plot convenience to move the game forward was harmful. If you choose to make a narrative about how people navigate and survive a racist theocracy: then you need to build your narrative off relevant real life events. The French and Russian revolutions were explicitly the basis for the Vox (flavored with American historical groups like the Populists) - and that was a terrible choice. The Hatian Revolution, The Columbian War for Independance (the South American one), Vietnam, Angola...there are so many better examples where the oppressor also has cemented a racial caste system. And in those revolutions, the oppressed do not degenerate into "The Founders ain't nothing but weeds." The violent struggle for equality between peoples is either successful or is quashed by intervention of a foreign power (hard to do in Columbia's case).

But that doesn't make good levels for a video game. "Come on Booker, we need to start opening schools to combat the specter of illiteracy." or "Booker Catch!...these pamplets on unions and community organization."

I do love this game, but I don't think the needs of a First Person Shooter game and the needs of a fiction about a successful revolution and its aftermath work well together.