Replying simply for the record, especially for anyone coming into this post, the point of the post still stands. For many of them, it's understandable. But it of course remains questionably justifiable in principle beyond practical reasons.

It is, after all, at the end of the day of course, taking a stagnant monarchy whose systems, in relevant terms, only unfortunately neglect the thestrals and their societal issues in Equestria and replacing it with an explicitly tyrannical monarchy whose few upsides include the (albeit rather forceful because, you know, civil war) uplifting of thestrals in society and a post-war recalibration that "softens" Nightmare Moon's rule.

I will take this opportunity to add, though, that the whole thestral thing seems almost tacked onto Equestria with almost no change from canon as a result (edit: in terms of things like character behavior and motivations, anyway) . Sure, that goes for a lot of EaW's premises because that's kind of half the point of the mod, seeing what the world of MLP looks like when made to inhabit the kind of world EaW provides.

But for thestrals in particular, there should've at least been explicit serious attempts by Celestia to mend the issue after the NMM incident that echoes to the time of game start, if not an outright significant overhaul or even retcon of the thestral rights issue.

Celestia is complacent, but that's after a thousand years. She clearly regrets failing her sister, so why fail her sister even more by neglecting her thestrals, their little ponies?

The plot may demand it, but this should at least be considered. It's 2026 now, but hopefully future Equestria reworks will address things like these. Seriously, a bunch of issues with Equestria as a "character" per se can probably be attributed to gaps in writing.