Why was the Qubeley mass produced?(SPOILERS)

[Mafty]

So its established that the Qubeley was made for Haman Kahn; the movie even shows her with a customized Gaza-C, presumably before her unit was ready. Later its followed by a limited production series MK 2; which are assigned to young pilots, and aside from color scheme seem to have no different armaments. So why was the Qubeley mass produced? Was it considered to be the most powerful Newtype MS? Was it symbolic of being part of the Royal Guard? Glemmy clearly mass produces Ple and the Qubeley as a taunt against Haman (as well as having a group of powerful, obedient soldiers), but why'd they produce more of the Qubeley to start with? it's not clear what the most powerful Newtype MS is (though it would seem to be either the Queen Manstha or the Geymalk), its also somewhat rarer to see Newtype MS be mass produced rather than a custom (Granted this makes sense here).

[Kuruni]

There's theory that the purpose of Mark IIs are to evaluate the possibility of mass produce it to start with.

[John-Luck Pickerd]

For one , the Queen Manyha is huge, its pretty much a Mobile Armour sized machine. As for Geymalk, its been awhile since I saw ZZ but didnt that appear fairly late?

The Qub on the other hand has existed since Z, any kink would have been worked out, and they would have enough time to plan out the production lines and flow.

I guess the Queen is too pricy. Geymalk didnt have enough time to work out any kinks it might have and the infrastructure for producing Geymalk arent ready yet

[Underrated GM Custom]

I'll echo similar sentiments, the Quebeley has been field tested and likely is cheaper to produce at this point and has a proven track record. On the other hand the Geymalk like a lot of other ZZ designs are what I would consider Cost+ designs where the owner keeps making changes and the final end product has half a dozen or more weapons on it which has got to be costly to manufacture.

They did end up producing a lot of Doven Wolfs though, I wonder if that emptied the Neo Zeon treasury.

[Seto Kaiba]

Because "Once the <irresponsibly half-designed superweapon> is mass-produced, it'll be the end of the Federation!", to paraphrase Dozle Zabi.

Mind you, in this case the irresponsibly half-designed superweapon is the Ple-series Newtype clone soldiers rather than the Quebeley itself. The Quebeley was a high-spec Newtype MS with reasonably balanced performance that they could economically mass-produce for their Newtype corps by dint of the fact that the individual tuning for the Newtype pilots would be minimal because the pilots were all clones with the same mental conditioning.

[MythSearcher]

So its established that the Qubeley was made for Haman Kahn; the movie even shows her with a customized Gaza-C, presumably before her unit was ready. Later its followed by a limited production series MK 2; which are assigned to young pilots, and aside from color scheme seem to have no different armaments.

The Mk-IIs have a slight higher count of funnels, but it was also speculated that the original Qubeley also saw that upgrade by ZZ. The red Mk-II was seen with a 3 pronged beam sabre, as well as a remote control headset, which weren't seen on the other two.

So why was the Qubeley mass produced? Was it considered to be the most powerful Newtype MS? Was it symbolic of being part of the Royal Guard? Glemmy clearly mass produces Ple and the Qubeley as a taunt against Haman (as well as having a group of powerful, obedient soldiers), but why'd they produce more of the Qubeley to start with? it's not clear what the most powerful Newtype MS is (though it would seem to be either the Queen Manstha or the Geymalk), its also somewhat rarer to see Newtype MS be mass produced rather than a custom (Granted this makes sense here).

On top of the reasons others have put up, the Geymalk might have been planning for mass produced but likely the internal conflict delayed it enough.
Glemmy is the one in charge of the Ple project for mass producing NTs, meaning it will be harder to do testings if he isn't that cooperative, and we can see that the Geymalk appeared on Harman's side so likely developed under a different branch not controlled by Glemmy.
Queen Mansa is too big as others have said, and probably aren't really that much better than the Qubeley mass production types if you think about it. It only has a 0.1g increase in acceleration, has same number of funnels(and they used the same type of funnels), less vernier thrusters, and about 5 times the empty weight(meaning likely at least 5 times the material cost) and can't be fitted in most standard MS carrier because it is about twice as tall as your regular MS. You also need a lot more powerful thrusters(which is likely one of the most expensive device on the MS other than the weapons) to maintain its higher acceleration(which is still pretty low and barely mid-late OYW class)
Consider all of these NT MSs are supposed to be best used when they are far from the enemy(as shown in FG where the Elmeth stealthily sunk 5 ships without being noticed), other weapons aren't that important.(whoever can sense these NT units are also NT and thus direct attacks are very unlikely to hit them anyway) The active cannons on the Qubeley MP is likely already effective enough and if say 3~5 of them work together will form a much better curtain of fire that is more likely to hit an incoming target than just one Queen Mansa.(which is the mass production quantity over quality doctrine we have IRL and it works much MUCH better than CEs "battlefield/war is controlled and decided but a few elite units" doctrine.)

[JEFFPIATT]

the Queen Mansa was the Qubeley tech tree reconnected haphazardly to it's divergent Titans funded Federal Newtype labs tech tree. in the just TV cannon the Neo-Zeon forces of Axis salvaged and repaired the Psycho Gundam MK II so they could use it as a captured test unit for there own research and to help built the Mansa. it's specs were also behind the Doven Wolf before side works added the Gundam MK V as a additional unit to have it's data fall to axis.
on the MP Qubeley other than being proven it's likely it just had lots of tooling around and was ready to go most other MP Axis units were more started as space forklift to limited test run oh crap our boss saw a new shiny.

[MythSearcher]

the Queen Mansa was the Qubeley tech tree reconnected haphazardly to it's divergent Titans funded Federal Newtype labs tech tree. in the just TV cannon the Neo-Zeon forces of Axis salvaged and repaired the Psycho Gundam MK II so they could use it as a captured test unit for there own research and to help built the Mansa. it's specs were also behind the Doven Wolf before side works added the Gundam MK V as a additional unit to have it's data fall to axis.
on the MP Qubeley other than being proven it's likely it just had lots of tooling around and was ready to go most other MP Axis units were more started as space forklift to limited test run oh crap our boss saw a new shiny.

Well, putting Glemmy in charge is as stupid as it gets.
Haman kept using Qubeley and is content with it. on the other hand, someone in charge of the NT research and NT MS development is obviously inept. Considering Glemmy chose the worst timing to rebel against Haman, and is in charge of the development at the time, well, he is likely the inept one.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, putting Glemmy in charge is as stupid as it gets.
Haman kept using Qubeley and is content with it. on the other hand, someone in charge of the NT research and NT MS development is obviously inept. Considering Glemmy chose the worst timing to rebel against Haman, and is in charge of the development at the time, well, he is likely the inept one.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the autocratic space facists hell-bent on world domination are not known for their rationality or their discernment. I mean, you'd think the rumors that Glemmy Toto was notorious psychopath Gihren Zabi's secret son would have been reason enough to keep him as far removed from any kind of authority as possible.

That said, if you exclude the terrible timing the decision to mass-produce the Quebeley was actually pretty sound. The Quebeley was a pretty damned effective Newtype unit to the point that even twenty or so years later the concept is the basis for a new generation of Neo Zeon Newtype MS units like the Kshatriya. Glemmy's problem was Neo Zeon's go at working around their manpower shortage and need for individual tuning was only partly successful. They managed to succeed in producing a set of clones with Newtype abilities whose minds were alike enough that the mass-production Quebeley didn't need special tuning for each pilot. It would've been a legitimately viable superweapon if they'd had the means to make the clones mentally stable. They were SO DAMN CLOSE to a legitimate supersoldier corps, and foiled only by the fact that the mental conditioning used to assembly-line the pilots minds gave them toxic codependency of the very worst kind and made the whole unit as stable as a biscuit raft.

[MythSearcher]

That said, if you exclude the terrible timing the decision to mass-produce the Quebeley was actually pretty sound. The Quebeley was a pretty damned effective Newtype unit to the point that even twenty or so years later the concept is the basis for a new generation of Neo Zeon Newtype MS units like the Kshatriya. Glemmy's problem was Neo Zeon's go at working around their manpower shortage and need for individual tuning was only partly successful. They managed to succeed in producing a set of clones with Newtype abilities whose minds were alike enough that the mass-production Quebeley didn't need special tuning for each pilot. It would've been a legitimately viable superweapon if they'd had the means to make the clones mentally stable. They were SO DAMN CLOSE to a legitimate supersoldier corps, and foiled only by the fact that the mental conditioning used to assembly-line the pilots minds gave them toxic codependency of the very worst kind and made the whole unit as stable as a biscuit raft.

Yes, but at the same time it is possible that Glemmy isn't in charge when the decision to mass produce the Qubeley?
We see him as just a regular front line soldier earlier in the series, not even that much like a high ranked commander.(and a very stupid one as well) So Haman might have ordered the mass production before Glemmy took charge, and Glemmy had to just use them after he took control of the NT facilities.

Ple seems to be pretty fine in terms of mentality(a bit more childish than her appearance but hey, she didn't have that much experience outside of the lab) and that is before Glemmy took over the facility. Glemmy entrance made the unstable Ple Two. So the failure of Ple series can likely be blamed on Glemmy.

[Mafty]

True, it's not exactly clear when Glemmy began receiving presumably nepotism induced promotions (do any of his early actions suggest he's competent?), it could be that the whole restore Zeon's former glory thing lead to people giving preferential treatment to the few connected survivors of the Zabi clan (ie Glemmy and Mineva). As for Ple some suggest she's actually either a clone or possibly another child from an affair between Gihren and uh somebody, I've always thought it was maybe Cecilia Irene(look at the two characters, there's a similarity).

Also the whole Pyscho Gundam MK II to Queen Manstha thing makes so much sense, and it also explains the amount of Newtype use heavy Mobile Suits in the later part of the war.

Also give how Gundam often reuses plotlines; does anyone else notice the similarity between the Ple Two Newtype Corps, and the later Innovators from Gundam 00.

[MythSearcher]

True, it's not exactly clear when Glemmy began receiving presumably nepotism induced promotions (do any of his early actions suggest he's competent?), it could be that the whole restore Zeon's former glory thing lead to people giving preferential treatment to the few connected survivors of the Zabi clan (ie Glemmy and Mineva). As for Ple some suggest she's actually either a clone or possibly another child from an affair between Gihren and uh somebody, I've always thought it was maybe Cecilia Irene(look at the two characters, there's a similarity).

Also the whole Pyscho Gundam MK II to Queen Manstha thing makes so much sense, and it also explains the amount of Newtype use heavy Mobile Suits in the later part of the war.

Also give how Gundam often reuses plotlines; does anyone else notice the similarity between the Ple Two Newtype Corps, and the later Innovators from Gundam 00.

His actions in the beginning and the end are too impressive(in a bad way) that he gives an overall impression as an idiot and incompetent fool.(He is just a comical relief character in early show to begin with)

We can maybe speculate that sine NZ really is that much lacking in human resources, someone who didn't die and maybe not lose everything when retreating is already considered competent.
I don't recall a lot of ZZ's details, but reading the many Japanese wikis(including the SRW and Gundam CRE wikis) they seem to put him in a more competent light. While he is completely stupid to have been used by Loux to return to Argama, he got lucky and his superior all got kinda demoted, leaving him with a Sandra class. He then did do kinda well in capturing some land on Earth and seems to have some diplomatic success as he got to dine with some EF officers.
While Haman is suspicious of him, her spy also turned to Glemmy, so i guess he isn't completely incompetent in terms of being a pretty good diplomat and manipulating people. His decisions are stupid as a leader but he at least does the things in his position well enough.
What lands him the position to the NT lab might be his records for Bau, where using a part as a missile seems to be successful in the fight and that might have shown his talents in MS design, landing him into the NT research team and later in charge of it.

I have always thought Ple is supposed to have used Haman's genes because she is a NT and rightfully handy enough to have data taken during the later stages or after OYW. Considering her to be the main test pilot of NT tech in Axis, it would make sense that she is likely the one with best NT abilities there. Surely Ple doesn't seem like having Lalah's genes.

[Mafty]

Neo Zeon did lack in Human Resources as they were a smaller particularly remote settlement; as a result many of their soldiers were children of the Zeon refugees from the OYW, and even then they still needed to get civilian volunteers from neutral colonies. Look at the early make up of the soldiers and many seem to be descended from loyalists to the Zeon cause (Glemmy, Mashymar,Pampa Lida and presumably Gottn , Rakan, Ple and Chara) and likewise tend to wind up in charge of their own soldiers and ships(there hadn't been that many battle Neo Zeon had been in by that point, and the young age of the leaders suggests this, plus none of the Endra ships were seen a few weeks earlier in Zeta's finale so they probably hadn't been completed yet), it appears Nepotism is strong in the ranks of Neo Zeon. Its entirely possible some of the minor characters seen later in the show are actually civilians from the colonies (ie Creyue and Nel, who kinda show up out of nowhere), Plus there are actually other survivors from the OYW in hiding (like Satou), Predating a lot of the Gundam side stories of Zeon remnants.

Looking closer at Glemmys story reveals more; he did capture Leina Ashta, and attempt to indoctrinate her into the Neo Zeon way, it didn't work, but the PR Glemmy brought them by presenting Leina as a model of Neo Zeon, probably improved his image in the eyes of his superiors. Like MythSearcher said the ability to survive so many battles and preform well in the Bau probably equally raised his position, especially as the novelization reveals he is a Newtype.

So it probably winds up a mix of both reasons; Glemmys familial connects probably got him promoted despite his early failures, his actual abilities kept him in those positions, and lead to him gaining more power and allies(Though it's worth noting that both August and Rakan didn't really care who lead Neo Zeon, they merely wanted to be on the winning side).

The whole Ple birth mystery is kept (seemingly deliberately) vague (at least if you’ve only see the anime). A discussion on the forums last year pointed out that the novelization of ZZ went into more detail on the birth and background of Glemmy Toto and how it ties into Ple. In another book its apparently stated the Glemmy and Ple were artificially inseminated from Gihren and Two (or three if you buy into the whole Alicia Zabi Dream of the Black Rabbit thing) donors to create powerful offspring’s to carry on the Zeon legacy (sorta of like the whole Mineva clone thing at the end of ZZ, come to think of it what happened to Minevas clone?). It would certainly explain why they kept cloning the poor girl; as Newtype powers(paticularly in children who are easier to manipulate) are seen as such a commodity. You can see this later with Quess and earlier with the war orphans from the Newtype labs. It ultimately reaches the point where even Amuro and Char are cloned years down the line for their immense power.

[MythSearcher]

Neo Zeon did lack in Human Resources as they were a smaller particularly remote settlement; as a result many of their soldiers were children of the Zeon refugees from the OYW, and even then they still needed to get civilian volunteers from neutral colonies. Look at the early make up of the soldiers and many seem to be descended from loyalists to the Zeon cause (Glemmy, Mashymar,Pampa Lida and presumably Gottn , Rakan, Ple and Chara) and likewise tend to wind up in charge of their own soldiers and ships(there hadn't been that many battle Neo Zeon had been in by that point, and the young age of the leaders suggests this, plus none of the Endra ships were seen a few weeks earlier in Zeta's finale so they probably hadn't been completed yet), it appears Nepotism is strong in the ranks of Neo Zeon. Its entirely possible some of the minor characters seen later in the show are actually civilians from the colonies (ie Creyue and Nel, who kinda show up out of nowhere), Plus there are actually other survivors from the OYW in hiding (like Satou), Predating a lot of the Gundam side stories of Zeon remnants.

Looking closer at Glemmys story reveals more; he did capture Leina Ashta, and attempt to indoctrinate her into the Neo Zeon way, it didn't work, but the PR Glemmy brought them by presenting Leina as a model of Neo Zeon, probably improved his image in the eyes of his superiors. Like MythSearcher said the ability to survive so many battles and preform well in the Bau probably equally raised his position, especially as the novelization reveals he is a Newtype.

So it probably winds up a mix of both reasons; Glemmys familial connects probably got him promoted despite his early failures, his actual abilities kept him in those positions, and lead to him gaining more power and allies(Though it's worth noting that both August and Rakan didn't really care who lead Neo Zeon, they merely wanted to be on the winning side).

The whole Ple birth mystery is kept (seemingly deliberately) vague (at least if you’ve only see the anime). A discussion on the forums last year pointed out that the novelization of ZZ went into more detail on the birth and background of Glemmy Toto and how it ties into Ple. In another book its apparently stated the Glemmy and Ple were artificially inseminated from Gihren and Two (or three if you buy into the whole Alicia Zabi Dream of the Black Rabbit thing) donors to create powerful offspring’s to carry on the Zeon legacy (sorta of like the whole Mineva clone thing at the end of ZZ, come to think of it what happened to Minevas clone?). It would certainly explain why they kept cloning the poor girl; as Newtype powers(paticularly in children who are easier to manipulate) are seen as such a commodity. You can see this later with Quess and earlier with the war orphans from the Newtype labs. It ultimately reaches the point where even Amuro and Char are cloned years down the line for their immense power.

Seriously, nepotism was strong among Zeon ranks, not just Neo Zeon.
And Axis Zeon was intentionally hiding their forces during Gryps conflict(Zeta) I don't remember if they showed it in the original TV but surely they showed(and have characters talked about it) that fleets are coming out of Axis after it crashed and shattered Gate of Zedan(ABQ) before that point, Haman only used the Gwadan and inexperienced crew on the ship to camouflage the fact that Axis Zeon is a much larger force than it is.(though going around in a 1200m class ship is in itself imposing enough) Haman really is very smart in diplomatic talks and fooled everyone into thinking they are a much smaller force and can only cling onto one of the sides(Titans or AEUG) to suck the sweet juice of victory allying with one of them with maybe some threat of a mutual mass destruction with nukes and Axis(In which Jamitov even doubt her to be able to do and thought she was just bluffing.)

Cloning NTs seems to have very low success rate. They will have to artificially boost them in other ways, but they surely make it sound like clones of NT seems to be easier to boost.

Minerva clones probably aren't literal clones, but more like Meer in SEED D. Getting someone that is similar in statue or maybe even looks and artificially make them look alike. Makes little sense to clone an unborn(you will still have about 40 weeks of age different if you clone the new born baby and Minerva is young so 40 weeks should show a pretty big difference in development) And they don't have tech to speed up the growth of the clones yet.

[JEFFPIATT]

Neo Zeon did lack in Human Resources as they were a smaller particularly remote settlement; as a result many of their soldiers were children of the Zeon refugees from the OYW, and even then they still needed to get civilian volunteers from neutral colonies. Look at the early make up of the soldiers and many seem to be descended from loyalists to the Zeon cause (Glemmy, Mashymar,Pampa Lida and presumably Gottn , Rakan, Ple and Chara) and likewise tend to wind up in charge of their own soldiers and ships(there hadn't been that many battle Neo Zeon had been in by that point, and the young age of the leaders suggests this, plus none of the Endra ships were seen a few weeks earlier in Zeta's finale so they probably hadn't been completed yet), it appears Nepotism is strong in the ranks of Neo Zeon. Its entirely possible some of the minor characters seen later in the show are actually civilians from the colonies (ie Creyue and Nel, who kinda show up out of nowhere), Plus there are actually other survivors from the OYW in hiding (like Satou), Predating a lot of the Gundam side stories of Zeon remnants.

Looking closer at Glemmys story reveals more; he did capture Leina Ashta, and attempt to indoctrinate her into the Neo Zeon way, it didn't work, but the PR Glemmy brought them by presenting Leina as a model of Neo Zeon, probably improved his image in the eyes of his superiors. Like MythSearcher said the ability to survive so many battles and preform well in the Bau probably equally raised his position, especially as the novelization reveals he is a Newtype.

So it probably winds up a mix of both reasons; Glemmys familial connects probably got him promoted despite his early failures, his actual abilities kept him in those positions, and lead to him gaining more power and allies(Though it's worth noting that both August and Rakan didn't really care who lead Neo Zeon, they merely wanted to be on the winning side).

The whole Ple birth mystery is kept (seemingly deliberately) vague (at least if you’ve only see the anime). A discussion on the forums last year pointed out that the novelization of ZZ went into more detail on the birth and background of Glemmy Toto and how it ties into Ple. In another book its apparently stated the Glemmy and Ple were artificially inseminated from Gihren and Two (or three if you buy into the whole Alicia Zabi Dream of the Black Rabbit thing) donors to create powerful offspring’s to carry on the Zeon legacy (sorta of like the whole Mineva clone thing at the end of ZZ, come to think of it what happened to Minevas clone?). It would certainly explain why they kept cloning the poor girl; as Newtype powers(paticularly in children who are easier to manipulate) are seen as such a commodity. You can see this later with Quess and earlier with the war orphans from the Newtype labs. It ultimately reaches the point where even Amuro and Char are cloned years down the line for their immense power.

Seriously, nepotism was strong among Zeon ranks, not just Neo Zeon.
And Axis Zeon was intentionally hiding their forces during Gryps conflict(Zeta) I don't remember if they showed it in the original TV but surely they showed(and have characters talked about it) that fleets are coming out of Axis after it crashed and shattered Gate of Zedan(ABQ) before that point, Haman only used the Gwadan and inexperienced crew on the ship to camouflage the fact that Axis Zeon is a much larger force than it is.(though going around in a 1200m class ship is in itself imposing enough) Haman really is very smart in diplomatic talks and fooled everyone into thinking they are a much smaller force and can only cling onto one of the sides(Titans or AEUG) to suck the sweet juice of victory allying with one of them with maybe some threat of a mutual mass destruction with nukes and Axis(In which Jamitov even doubt her to be able to do and thought she was just bluffing.)

Cloning NTs seems to have very low success rate. They will have to artificially boost them in other ways, but they surely make it sound like clones of NT seems to be easier to boost.

Minerva clones probably aren't literal clones, but more like Meer in SEED D. Getting someone that is similar in statue or maybe even looks and artificially make them look alike. Makes little sense to clone an unborn(you will still have about 40 weeks of age different if you clone the new born baby and Minerva is young so 40 weeks should show a pretty big difference in development) And they don't have tech to speed up the growth of the clones yet.

When ZZ came out they actually didn't know how clones worked so the show likely used the classic tropes of xerox clones. but it's more likely like most royals she had a Political decoy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_decoy

the Pie sisters fit with normal cloneing but the army of ple-drones seems like it was too fast after the first two girls. the first Mk II had one with no programming her sister Two seemed to be cyber conditioned to be the ultimate operatior of her unit. the clones are implied to be even more programmed to blindly follow orders. there basically parts for the MP units. the last sister we meet in UC kind of shows that.

[MythSearcher]

When ZZ came out they actually didn't know how clones worked so the show likely used the classic tropes of xerox clones. but it's more likely like most royals she had a Political decoy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_decoy

the Pie sisters fit with normal cloneing but the army of ple-drones seems like it was too fast after the first two girls. the first Mk II had one with no programming her sister Two seemed to be cyber conditioned to be the ultimate operatior of her unit. the clones are implied to be even more programmed to blindly follow orders. there basically parts for the MP units. the last sister we meet in UC kind of shows that.

The Ple clones I always assumed they opened the capsules for Ple and Ple two early as test subjects.
The only problem of that project is their age seems to be 10 or 11, meaning they were cloned before OYW, definitely before any New Type research took off.(Kycilia only formed the research formally after battle of Loum)

Minerva, yes,I can't recall the exact term used in Japanese but I think it is 影武者, which is just means a political decoy and not really a clone.

[Mafty]

The Xerox Cloning thing seems kinda plausible; I agree with Mythsearch in that if you add up the ages to the timeline, Elpeo Ple was likely born in Munzo in UC 0078, Which was one year before the war began. This actually means she joins Glemmy and Mineva in being Zeon/Zabi descendants who were actually alive during the OYW. So cloning her in UC 0088 seems the most likely.

[MythSearcher]

The Xerox Cloning thing seems kinda plausible; I agree with Mythsearch in that if you add up the ages to the timeline, Elpeo Ple was likely born in Munzo in UC 0078, Which was one year before the war began. This actually means she joins Glemmy and Mineva in being Zeon/Zabi descendants who were actually alive during the OYW. So cloning her in UC 0088 seems the most likely.

Elpeo Ple birthday was on 8 March, either 0077 or 0078(but I don't know the source of this and is too lazy to search for that)
So it makes little sense that she used any NT genes, unless they can add in the genes afterwards.(but still won't be able to clone her)

But at the same time they never establish a xerox cloning tech in UC, so, it really isn't solved in canon.

[Mafty]

True the mid 80s Gundam cloning and Cyber Newtype training are always kept vague; the Cyber Newtypes show severe issues physically and emotionally, the clones never seem to suffer any physical effect from the cloning, only mental from the brainwashing. IMO I think the Cosmic Era (and to use a different franchise example Scientific Railguns Sister's Arc) did a better job going into detail about the physical and mental effects on the clones of powerful people(as well as the in universe science behind it). ZZ kinda used it as a means to an end, rather than something revolutionary that would change the scientific world.

[Kuruni]

IMO I think the Cosmic Era (and to use a different franchise example Scientific Railguns Sister's Arc) did a better job

Dude, this is the case of being objectively right yet sound silly at the same time. Dolly lived from 1996 to 2003, so it's natural that people then have better idea of the consequence of cloning process than in 1986. It's like claiming that a random airport sci-fi writer did a better job than William Gibson when he wrote Neuromancer.