Okay, it just kind of seems like a downward spiral of energy/resources, kind of like how the Earth is running out of fossil fuels.

like for example, you say that ether can be synthesized, but does that synthesis violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics? Is thermodynamics even a thing here?

I'm not trying to be problematic or anything, it just is weird to me that this world seems like a condensed form of the inevitable heat death of the universe