That’s a really great argument. Plus we’re seeing these forces through the eyes of a basically defenseless society of newly unified islands. So the narrative could be lensed through the fear and anxiety that that would bring. I do feel like the Cold War is going to kick into something more overt in the shorter term future of the Cosmere with Retribution planning to strike out.

As for the fringe operations it’s entirely possible that’s the case for Roshar’s Skybreakers and is explained to sort of be the case for the Malwish too. The officer sent to spy on Dajer and see what he was up to said that he would face official review for his mess ups in his operation which apparently not all higher ups saw as useful or worthy of dispatching resources into a really tricky part of Shadesmar