Review Detail of skycancer in The Mechanical Era

Thought this was a kingdom building novel yet was surprised to see the MC completely bend over and becoming a puppet leader. This left a bad taste in my mouth. Where's the kingdom building? Where's the Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate? There's a conquer tag, probably misleading since it's the MC who's getting conquered. There's no kingdom building to be had when you're a vassal, author.