Finally finished the main series of novels last night, what a ride!
There’s no “answer”, and deliberately so, by the authors, but would the Gatebuilders plan for killing the “dark gods” have worked?
We get some indication that as Holden starts reaching out across minds he’s getting stronger and more able to fight the “dark gods”, but if Holden had been able to combine all of humanity into a single mind, would that had been enough to permanently defeat the dark gods?
I’m inclined to think it was always a fools errand. Ring space is only a small bubble in the “old universe”. That all the struggle a single mind of humanity could put up against the “dark gods” would be about the same as the world’s strongest ant contending with a boot.
Semi-jokingly, I like to think that the “dark gods” view all this as little more than an annoyance. That, as Dr. Okoye analogized using different treatments against an infection to the “dark gods” attacks on humanity, that it might be the “dark gods” saw all the antics from humanity and the Gatebuilders as something like a persistent upset stomach or a skin rash that they are trying to treat. A ship going Dutchman is just them doing the equivalent of popping some pepto-bismo to deal with some nausea/intestinal distress.
Perhaps more satisfying when viewing the “dark gods” this way, it makes Duarte look truly delusional. Again, imagine the idea of the world’s strongest ant thinking it can fight a boot.