okay so, after half a year of watching and rewatching and getting to the important story beats in the game, I FINALLY understand what's originium is Supposed to do
Originium was never supposed to 'save people from extinction inside the assimilated universe'. Originium is supposed to Recreate everything it stored in assimilated universe.
The Difference, is that originium was never intended to 'save/store' anyone. Oracle was immune to originium. If originium was made to 'save everyone in the assimilated universe', then he and Priestess would've been the first to jump into rock cancer dusting and they'd live happily ever after there. And yet Oracle was surprised originium caused so much suffering through oripathy - it was Not supposed to do that!
Remember Theresa's flowers. They are flowers. Not originium crystals shaped like flowers, they are normal living flowers made Out Of orignium. Theresa realised not only that originium stores information,but that it has the functionality to Recreate it back. It just hasn't been activated yet.
THAT'S WHAT SPOOKED ORACLE. Theresa found a cheatcode to make originium skip the 'growth' stage and make it jump straight into 'recreation' stage. That's why Theresa thought she could make the Kazdel deserts livable again.
But without spreading everywhere first, originium could never fulfill it's goal of saving everyone through recreation. It wouldn't be enough, or the risks would be higher or something else. There was a reason the project had it's first stage be 'covering the world', and it didn't just immediately start replicating everything.
That's why first thing Oracle asked was 'did I wake too early or too late?' He couldn't distinguish if he awoke to witness native Terra civilisation while originium was still developing or if he was witnessing the recreated people from archived information in originium. Originium was made to continue life, so either he's too early and the project is still developing, or he's already witnessing the success of the project.
That's why Priestess calls originium 'not an extinction but a continuation'. It's supposed to endlessly recreate life that has been wiped. The best Oracle and Priestess could think of, against the threat that can wipe civilisations, was a reincarnation loop. Yes, it's still death, which Oracle did admit, but you would still survive it in a way. If after dying you were reborn just as you were before, did you really even die?
Given that they've most certainly have stored themselves in it as well, but they haven't been dusted, means that originium 'stores people' without any invasive contact, by observation or analysing recordings or something, the specifics doesn't matter. It's non-invasive. This is also why Oracle is so surprised to see terrans use originium and build their tech around it - it was supposed to be a kind of 'mould' that nobody paid attention to and which recorded everything, without harming anyone. It's just there and does it's job. It was not supposed to hurt living organisms, just observe and 'save' them for the next stage of it's coding. Slowly grow out, record eveything, gradually cover the planet - repopulate it with what's been stored.
At least. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. No Way were Oracle&Priestess so clever and loved philosophy so much, yet failed to realise that an imaginary world could not be their salvation. This explanation is the only way Doctor's feelings make sense (to me at least). He strived to spend his time with Kal'tsit, and Theresa and Amiya. He never gave up on saving them. He just chose to 'wait' a little for that. To then spend time with them reincarnated. He knew they would all come back and be healthy this time, they just needed to endure a little procedure first.
I think AMa project was the testing grounds for originium reincarnation cycle. If 'recreating life' really is it's goal, then Kal'tsit and her spine monster definitely fit the prototype description. (the only excuse I have in my head why she was still manage to get infected is that either her 'originium' code was too old to be recognised and therefore was being overwritten or the reincarnation process did proceed with changes which conflict with modern originium code) If that's true, then it also confirms that originium storing allows for updates on information, therefore the person is truly 'reborn' and doesn't lose their memories, or isn't saved as a 'static' slice in time of what they once were. It's specifically a rebirth cycle.
That's why Oracle ultimately made that decision in Babel. He wasn't killing a friend. He was saving everyone. Mercy killing (through the unintended oripathy) on a scale of a planet so everyone will come back healthy later. Originium was working as intended, and Theresa's flower field only confirmed that Oracle&Priestess' plan was working. But her cheatcode threatened to disrupt the sucess of that.
Oracle chose to save everyone. He never went back on his promises. It's just he needed everyone to endure a little procedure first, and then everything would be okay. He was not very good at fooling himself into ignoring the suffering he was witnessing first-hand though. This choice is obvious in retrospect, but still it's not light to make at all.
