skygiants

in a book that is otherwise extremely optimistic and very invested in Various Species Are Different And All Messed Up In Their Own Ways But Can Get Along If They Try, writing off one entire intelligent species as just Too Messed Up To Play With Others Ever feels sort of against the grain.

That is the sort of thing that sticks the wrong way with me, especially since it's one of the very old tropes of science fiction that it took way longer than in hindsight seems reasonable for me to notice was basically just Space Racism.

b.) works in dialogue with Sidra's main plotline to complicate ideas of 'human' and 'artificial' and 'purpose' and 'free will'

That does sound pretty great.