If I were "elite," I would want to get rid of NPCs, people who mindlessly do what they're told, people in poor health from their own choices, and fanatics.

I wouldn't care that I set things in motion for them to turn out that way. I'd just want to get rid of them.

When the world is down to 500,000,000, I wouldn't care if a lot of the survivors had previously resisted me.

They would be the fittest.

And they couldn't do much damage to me. Too few in number. And too spread out.

At any rate, at least they would be interesting.