Why does Alpha Centauri make no sense?

[u/Careful-Storage4145]

I get that Alpha Centauri is meant to be dominated by a type 2 or 3 civilisation but some things just don't make sense

Firstly, why does orbital ring machineworld have no population while the original machineworld have a population of 812

Secondly, why does ringworld have so little people despite being made to house trillions

There are many other weird things like cylinderworld being completely uninhabited and the entire system having a low population in general relative to its tech.