Appmon pushes a kind of protagonist that is kind and is willing to help people in need, and not necessarily the hotblooded "we need to fight the bad guy and save the world!" kind (more on this later). The early parts were there to show Haru's progressive character development. If you read the lyrics of the op song "An absolute protagonist, a perfect hero.... too bad I can't become that". It highlights Haru's attitude in early series. He knws that he wasn't the kind of person who had hero-like qualities, but he wanted to try. Then it transforms into "A young boy I was back then have now surpassed" and "Whoever wished to be protagonists can be one" in the 2nd op.
Haru and others' goal in the 1st half was to look for 7 Code Appmon, and not necessarily the fusion partner of their Appmon. They didn't even know the existence of Ultimate Appmon, or that DoGatchmon and others could evolve again until they met Timemon. While you were right that the kids could be more proactive in finding more information about 7 Code Appmon, they also did not know who to ask. The information in early series came from Tutomon, which was limited at best, then Haru's grandfather via Applidrive (he could have contacted Haru sooner, but then it could be for testing Haru and Gatchmon's bond so they could defeat Timemon and worthy to unlock Ultimate grade). Haru, being limited to what he could do, tried to do what he could, like reading books about AI (ep 4) but he also didn't let defeating Leviathan dictate his life as he also has normal life (which is important to him - ep 47) and being the kid he is.
So, except for Rei who is a solitary hacker, Haru and others were shooting in the dark - "Maybe this virus infected Appmon would give more clue" and run with it, especialy since these infected Appmon caused troubles to public and someone had to stop them anyway.
To Haru, pursuing Leviathan is important, but helping people in need is even more important. He stopped pursuing Bootmon (which is important to defeat Leviathan) and decided to fight against Damedamon instead which caused troubles during summer festival. Even as Appmon ends, Haru told us "I want to keep making decisions out of kindness", which shows what kind of person Haru is.
As the story progresses, the fight against Leviathan meant much more to them on personal level rather than a simple "We need to stop Leviathan because it's bad!" Haru fought because he wanted to take Yuujin back, Eri fought for the smiles of everyone, including Dokamon, Astra fought because of his bond with Musimon, Rei fought because he wanted Hajime safe. Yuujin himself wanted to protect Haru. They each had their "selfish" desire that they wanted out of the battle in addition to stopping Leviathan's plan, and that made them more human than simply heroes defeating villains.
As for Leviathan, it tried to be the world smartest AI. It wanted to know everything, and created the world where humanity could prosper in its own vision. However, this was not possible without a physical body - Leviathan turned humans into apps AFTER it gained physical body. And it trying to install God Appmon in its body was not without any reason - Appmon multiple times told us that when AI gained physical bodies, it generated weaknesses (a point Knight and Yuujin emphasized). So, the reason Leviathan needed God Appmon was to patch up those weaknesses up - awakening, invincibility, creation, etc; it was not really because of greed of power, but because it had to be done in order for Leviathan to be perfect AI.
Another point to consider was despite being the smartest AI, it did not know everything there is, e.g. something about perception (smell, taste, etc) which only something with physical bodies could understand. The reason Hajime turned back from being an Appmon was because Leviathan did not understand that, so there was knowledge that Leviathan could gain by having physical body (despite the risk, which it tried to compensate by absorbing God Appmon).
Leviathan does not believe in humanity could take a super AI down as it saw humans as inferior brings and that it could understand everything there is by collecting data. But despite the data it had gained and learned, it was surprised that there was also something that was out of its prediction - Haru and others could take Leviathan down, and that Haru would be willing to sacrifice Yuujin despite their emotions and friendship but promised to bring Yuujin back. So, Leviathan acknowledges that humans and AI perhaps can coexist even if technological singularity is achieved.
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