I’m not sure if you’re trying to appeal to pity or empathy, but as a 1d, surely you’ve played games of normal go where you crawled ahead out of worse situations than you’re currently in, right? And this is Diplomatic Go, we’re pioneers in this game type. I am convinced that it is a lot harder to live with something in this game type.
With about 3 games experience in SAS Go, I can tell that capturing something is both hard and easy at the same time. Because capture can be blocked by well-timed collision, it is sometimes impossible to actually remove a group in atari from the board. In other instances, it is almost impossible to defend, since the opponent may be playing in anticipation of your saving move.
This is not at all a finished game, and although le_4TC currently looks scary, that also makes them the prime target to fight against.
Who knows, perhaps 5 players on a 9x9 board will turn out to always be a draw?