I guess the Iconians could still have made the prison, but that seems like an unnecessary extra step when the Iconians are already described as "demons of air and darkness" in canon. The Iconians being sealed away in a prison of their own technology feels pretty poetic, though.
Yeah, and it could have explained how people heard about the Iconians in the first place
The mask that Gamble was wearing even has a little bit of an STO Iconians vibe to it. I guess fans already know what the Iconian alphabet is like, so that's less of a mystery, but teasing a mystery that no one could possibly guess/solve feels a bit bait and switch to me.
I was never a big fan of the Iconians in STO. All powerful, and yet easily defeated. And too much floating.
I don't have a particularly strong opinion either way, STO has an enthusiastic fanfic approach to smushing things together that tends to fall under "not how I would have done it", but I don't begrudge them having fun with it.
Yeah I agree, and I enjoy playing it. I put it more as an in universe holodeck program where an NX class can be upgraded enough to destroy a Romulan Warbird 🤣