Given how the antagonist is shown to not care about human life, I don't think he's trying to stop the industrial revolution for the planet or for humanity, I think it's closer to hating women and taking pleasure in sentencing them to horrible deaths, since in a previous chapter he tells the...
My best guess on why the saintess is so fucked up is jealousy over not being everyone's favorite(even the gods) and being treated as merely an acessory for the hero.