All according to keikaku
You’ve probably already seen such types of copium posts before, trying to make sense of the Fatui's actions in the game; this one will be another one of them. Surely HoYo hasn't written the Tsaritsa and her organization to be actually so foolish? After all...
Why is the upper echelon of officers (Harbingers) in a military organization given so much freedom? Given the personalities and ambitions of those officers, the leash needs to be tight as hell, not non-existent.
Why is Snezhnaya so antagonistic to the world, almost bordering on a global war scale? The Archons do not need their Gnoses, yet the methods by which they are acquired are so rough. Mondstadt? A lot of bad blood from Dottore due to the whole Dvalin fiasco. Liyue? They won’t forget Tartaglia and how the Fatui actively resisted the subduing of Osial. Inazuma? They don’t know about Tatarasuna, maybe they are clued in on the sabotage on Yashiori island, but the Delusions in Sangonomiya and conspiracies on the mainland are enough. Sumeru? Dottore and Dottore. Fontaine is sceptical at best. Natlan? Only Capitano and his troops have a pass, and only because they helped in the nation-wide catastrophe. Still very sceptical. Nod-Krai? Dottore. Also the “ugly” thing on Paha island and someone’s rude subordinates. Even mainland Snezhnaya itself probably won’t be at peace on the inside, given the rumours of "tightening the belts”.
Why everyone dies???
What if all of that is a part of a great conspiracy?
First of all, what’s the deal with the Heavenly Principles and the current world order?
The HP are against free will. And they do not shy away from destroying those who oppose them.
Even after they lost a lot of their powers while dealing with Nibelung who just returned home, they still found the strength to force Orobashi to kill himself and then, after thousands of years of “sleep”, deal with Khaenri’ah. There is no guarantee they won’t wake up and level the world again.
The Heavenly Principles are not omnipotent or omniscient. And they are not omnibenevolent.
The fact that the Tsaritsa gave her Harbingers the freedom to do what they want, even against her orders, is already an act of defiance. Not only that, but I think this is a direct bait and a mockery. She really took the least hinged people in Teyvat and gave them “free will”. I have no doubt she knew it wouldn't turn out “good” and that is the point. The HP think that free will only leads to calamity. The Tsaritsa gave freedom to those who are very capable of exactly that, straight up reinforcing the HP’s views on free humanity.
Second of all, let’s remember the Visions.
The Visions are elemental foci, they grant elemental powers, but obtaining them has an undisclosed price.
And this price, most likely, is having your ambitions and dreams trapped in an external organ. We saw what happens when they are “removed” from people in Inazuma.
Here is the thing. If dreams and ambitions are a tangible power in Teyvat, so too should be despairs, mistrusts and grievances. If you can be empowered by dreams, you can also, theoretically, wield their counter-force.
If, at some point, the HP would like to use the trapped “light of the soul” of the whole world , the surest way to stop them is to use “the darkness of the soul” of the whole world.
The Tsaritsa makes herself and her subordinates (not necessarily with their clear agreement or awareness) the hated villains of the world to gather this force of grievances. In fact, Fontaine and Natlan being on good terms is probably actually an unwelcome outcome. Total crack time: >!imagine how much you can make up in grievances if you bring back Dottore as a member of your organization — the man is working for three people here.!<
The Tsaritsa doesn’t go all in on actually hurting nations in a more meaningful way, maybe because it’s enough, maybe because after all is over they’ll need to live with each other, and forgiving harsh diplomacy with casualties is easier than active war with deliberate victims.
And finally, deaths.
This, too, is a part of the plan. Hell, even Tsaritsa's name Anastasya means "resurrection" and I doubt it's only about the 3rd Descender. Maybe it's because the Traveller alone is not enough, maybe it's her sort of mercy, giving her subjects true freedom after a life of "the suffering ordained by fate" and her own manipulations.
Everyone and their mother knows that the Tsaritsa is a gentle soul. Even her most rogue elements didn’t express any particular rejection of her. To save the world to save yourself? How about making yourself and those closest to you the enemies of the world to save everyone >!but yourself (kidding (unless?))!<? It’s easy to be a “good person” and play into the world’s destruction. It’s hard to be the “bad guy” for the greater good, that goes beyond fickle divinity.