An ongoing internal conflict would have kept the player's power level in story in check tbh. But Luther existence's as the highest in command and then get his ass whooped quite easily makes an internal conflict sorta impossible.(not sure whatever happened in ES because you guys barely talk about it lmao) ARKS is now just pure good guys with no desire but to just keep PD at bay. The 2 year time skip and no major changes after all that time is like the universe cannot move forward its own story without the main protagonist being involved.