I don't think it's trolling to take the story for what it is and finding that WANTING.

They were clearly just trying to hearken back to Amarout, Ultima Thule and their respective not quite living denizens but did a crappy job of it because the only reason shown that these people aren't quite alive is that they disappear eventually after a computer is shut down. Everything else about them is told to us directly, in 'trust me, bro' dialogue.

And, given the option to shut them down when previous final zone people were allowed to live on as long as they could without our interference (the actual threat to us dealt with aside), it seems reasonable that many players scrutinize this scenario far closer than previous ones to me.