I think the story risks becoming very stale if we end up with a situation where the Warrior of Light appears, shakes up the foundations of yet another nation and gets even more powerful. I want to see Ala Mhigo and Ishgard be even worse off as a consequence of intervention. Realistically speaking that's what happens when a nation's structure suddenly changes. For all the talk about bringing forth 'change' in the real world and eliminating 'corruption' quite a lot of people would suffer terribly if their government suffered a complete collapse. It's no different in a fantasy setting.

As for Gaius? We didn't see a body, true, but...as much as I liked him I wouldn't want to see yet another character brought back from the dead. Besides - if he was written to defect and abandon his homeland and people then he'd be defanged and lose a lot of his appeal.