It's not entirely fair to call the Darwinists the Yuzhan Vong, as they do recognise that genetically modified beasties are beholden to rights as much as a regular animal would, and they don't simply screw around with DNA for the hell of it. Each and every beastie has been custom-created with a specific purpose in mind, and is used solely for that purpose, as you can see with the above Behemoth and Kraken examples.



The Darwinists are noted as having created and used these beasties since the in-universe industrial revolution, and indeed purpose grown and bred animals are noted as having replaced coal almost entirely. It's presented as a part of life as much as machines are a part of ours, and those who live and work with them, including the Darwinist main character, are shown to view them as much as we would any working animal of our world - valued partners and aides in all sorts of life.



I'm sorry if this sounds preachy, but I've been thinking about this a lot.