@pdonk If you didn't know, Douman has heavily referenced 'Childhood's End' by Arthur C. Clarke. Karellen, for example, is named after one of the more important alients in the book. In 'Childhood's End', an alien species shows up to help advance humanity rapidly. In doing so, they develop an ultra intelligent hivemind using psychic neo-human child minds. All the adults become super depressed as a result of losing their children to the hivemind and no longer being able to reproduce, similar to how they become depressed in this chapter. Or something like that.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childhood's_End
I'm with you, I don't think either situation is so depressing.