(1)Okay so first of all - the author did actually make this novel based on "power corrupts". That can be seen multiple times throughout this, and the dude confirmed it himself in the discord.
The MC's decisions for the colonies, while not "morally right" from a 21st century perspective, firstly, are logical to this world. A King in that time cannot act super kind to people outside his kingdom, as he will be seen as weak by others then, also, the people of his kingdom would see it as unfair (which it is) because in these circumstances you would have to sustain these people in some sorts education camp for years while feeding them on taxpayer money. Second, we see in today's world just how well all these "nice" countries work. Not at all, that is. With the way people are complaining in this comment section, they don't know sh*t about statecraft, and I don't blame them for that, that's some niche knowledge, but you could at least understand that the only real law is "the strongest wins".
