I mean…you have to know that’s a selective assessment of what happened on the show:

Pluribus was never traditionally “manipulative” about what they were doing…they were up front about who they chose, why they said what they said, and what they’re objective is. Pluribus also couldn’t have foreseen that Carol was going to kill thousands on thousands of them and force them to withdraw. They would have preferred to stay with Carol and convince her organically.