This post has content warnings for: spoilers for the end of 6.0, nothing big tho.

more sinister than intimidating
IIRC, it was more a public "The scions are disbanding" to fake the "death" of the collective, so that the city states wouldn't keep turning to them to solve their problems, and so they could take a break to pursue their own goals.
I was personally hoping they'd take the trip to the 13th as a chance to do a timeskip, and advance time for everyone but the WoL, give them some "off screen" development and such, and turn our WoL back into a hero nobody knows again. Maybe in 8.0.