Sounds like the storyline for Battlestar Galactica :-)
They correctly treated many aspects and details that today go ignored and addressed many of the issues that apply to us today with regards to adversaries who can by nature react faster than we can perceive.
The solution had cost tradeoffs, but in the end it proved the correct decision through virtue of the fact that the story continued (and they weren't all killed off in episode one).
In the show’s fictional plot, the decision seems correct because the story continued and the characters survived. However, we shouldn't judge decisions in real life by how they are portrayed in fiction. In modern fiction, decisions are often shaped to please audiences, not to reflect real-world correctness. Thus, it may not be wise to judge these fictional decisions by the same standards we use in real life.
It teaches us about the human propensity for propaganda.
For some background, Lifton, Meerloo, New Discourses (youtube), inform.
In a way, I'm almost envious of the ability to experience a story without being distracted the "meta" knowledge that what happens at every step is a deliberate choice by the writer. I'd probably be a lot more into movies if I could somehow believe that events in them unfolded organically like in reality rather than sometimes being forced for plot convenience.
That said, the development of meta knowledge is a sign of maturity.
It means you've watched or read enough of the same story to see the repeating pattern and by extension to see the holes that poor quality storytelling leaves.
It is magic for the reader when a story is crafted that can fully suspend disbelief especially when it is masterfully done. Some mediums and structures are really difficult to do this, like with the book The Reality Dysfunction (1400 pages?). There are something like 12 concurrent threads that jump around, its not that entertaining until you alter your reading habits and decide to skim or skip the threads of characters that don't interest you (saving them for a second read through if interest remains as a whole).
Needless to say, there are very few examples today of higher level of craft in current media because the corners have been cut beyond the point where they can remain in the finished product. The market has shrunk over time with the suppression of wages. You have to go back to much older production to really see this. If you haven't already watched it, check out the 1934 Count of Monte Cristo with Robert Donat, and a few of his other films (The 39 Steps) as a starter. Depending on your taste for more abstract film you might enjoy Ink with Christopher Soren Kelly, since it has many elements that are bit of a throwback to earlier cinema (if you haven't already seen it).
Overall, all it just means you need to focus on higher quality stories that surprise you. The meta knowledge helps you discern the trash from the gold.
There is far more trash today because most production companies have dual purposes. Making a profit, and seeking to distort reflected appraisal, pavlovian association of unrelated stimulus (associative priming), or destructively interfere with self concept of the viewer (without their knowledge), for thought reform and control; John Meerloo and Robert Lifton have background in that subject matter if you are interested in how actual brainwashing works in practice (its not absurd like they show in the movies, but it is often quite evil and dark not light reading).
You might enjoy reading The Hero of a Thousand Faces.
It is important to develop a cultured palette.
My point is that Jurassic Park movies always involve dinosaurs running around freely and causing havoc rather than a fun trip to a fancy zoo, and I assumed that was everyone's expectation going in, whereas this friend genuinely thought there was a chance that no dinosaurs would escape their cages during the duration of the film. Re-reading my comment, it's not obvious to me why it doesn't make sense to you, so I think it's safer to assume that there's a miscommunication happening here rather than in the conversation I had almost a decade ago.
Stories should provoke flexible thinking and perspective shifts in an entertaining way, they should not make you unhappy.
If you get hung up on surface level things like that assuming the worst, you close your eyes to higher levels of perspective and thinking.
The series is largely about a single theme which is primarily about nature vs. man, and man's hubris and fallibility.
That said, the handling of the tech received a seal of approval from me, and I've quite a bit of professional background in IT System's Engineering, and a periphery of Cyber.
I mean what they do really is not that much of a leap, and would improve existing security by orders of magnitude by eliminating swatches of attack surface that the worst of the worst malware out there uses today.
Punch cards (upgraded) -> Optical printouts that can be physically changed to load firmware and and the functional software from a physically modifiable medium. (A known working, knokwn safe state at the lowest level).
No persistent internal state at the hardware/firmware controller levels (for bad actors to abuse with an APT such as some of the DMA shennanigans, hooking, and bus tricks).
Non-networked except between critical fortified systems (to limit spread).
Sure you take some performance hits, but its resilient with few single points of failure (such as the physical medium).