Secret Reason Lydia Created the Pearl Girl Program
Lydia didn't start the pearl girl program for a secret reason. She just kept it for that reason.
I think Aunt Estee showed up in Gilead from Canada one day asking to stay. And maybe Lydia saw this as an opportunity that served multiple purposes depending on who you are:
- Gilead gets more potential wives/aunts/fruitful women (for leadership buy-in).
- Pipeline for mayday if you believe is aligned with mayday
- Bring in outside influences to infiltrate the current way of thinking
Lydia HAS to know Daisy is mayday. She reads people extremely well (ex: calling Daisy out for lying about Dr. Grove). If she didn't know for sure, she would have sensed something was not the right fit. There is no way Daisy slipped by her unchecked. And there is really no way she'd pair her with Agnes. By all accounts, pairing pearl girls and plums together is not a thing. We do not know how long Daisy was a pearl girl before meeting Agnes. Maybe Lydia was assessing Daisy at the same time she was nurturing Agnes' "overdeveloped sense of justice."
Maybe originally the pipeline was just for "sponges". But when Daisy showed up, Lydia sensed something so profoundly June-esque about Daisy that she created an opportunity for a good outcome.
Furthermore, and more importantly, it would be the dumbest move in history if protecting Gilead is your highest priority. Pearl girls can read and write. They have direct experience with the outside world. Introducing outside influences to a closed society is the surest way to blow it up. Even if they recruited 99 pious Canadians, all they need is one Daisy to set a spark.
There is no way the "Lydia that convinced Commander Judd to make her the head of the entire institution of females in Gilead" would have missed that.