Civilization might be a prerequisite for improving things, Aria, but that doesn’t make that civilization one that has ever done anything vaguely resembling ‘improving things’ for anyone but themselves.
They created the very ‘bandits’ and ‘cultists’ you bemoan. They inflicted on everyone else the chaos that is now rebounding back upon themselves. So yes, I agree with you: civilization is a pre-requisite for improving things. Hopefully, some day, civilization can take root in places like Domain, rather than simply decadent parasitism masquerading as it.