They know that it should be the opposite to save their island but the king and his court won’t listen to them. The king’s whole lineage cut down as much as they wanted, so he’s having a tantrum that it’s not working out the same for him. He’s doing it anyway. Entitlement can do that to a fellow.
Except it isn’t “the same thing”.
The point of the myth of Rapa Nui ecocide wasn’t “watch out for ecological damage”, it was “primitive barbarians are too stupid to manage their own resources, even when it kills them; we civilized people have to protect them by taking their island away from them and turning it into a park.”
It was a pro-colonialism meme.
When, y’know, in reality those resources, and the people, were being stolen by slavers.
So the lesson really should be “slavers are bad” … which we already knew.
I legitimately never thought of it in those terms. To me what happened, I was told, is what would happen to any group.