There are multiple other explanations than these two extremes.
For example: Irnof Sirober, basically well-meaning but a hotheaded an inexperienced person, was for some reason convinced that a good way to help Floseswin is to get a freighterful of freedom fighters and fly to Floseswin orbit. He is new and young, but hearing of his plans, someone (and this was clearly, according to evidence and reactions, not U’K) hands him a freighter. He then uses Ushra’Khan’s good name, which he has recently joined, to recruit some equally well-meaning but hotheaded and inexperienced volunteers (gods and spirits know the Matari have no shortage of those), and flies to Floseswin, where his ship is promptly destroyed and his volunteers taken prisoner.
The main question in this story becomes: who provided the freighter and the skill injectors? And with what motives?