The Entities have a MUCH better plan for gathering viable data: They give everyone of the planet SIMULATED powers. They can't actually affect things, but they can run simulated contests with other people, or against "environmental" challenges.
More miracle points (or whatever you want to call it) are earned by inventing creative applications of the power(s) the person has access to, as well as overcoming simulated environmental challenges, like Endbringer attacks.
They can also be transferred either consensually or by beating them in a fight (which doesn't require them to accept, of course); villains are those who attack people without their consent to take their MP.
MP can be spent to gain access to additional powers or to invoke a superpower in the real world, which can grant healing, technological advancement, insights into solving problems, and countless other applications.
Powers can also be released at FAR greater power levels than the entities would have ever dared actually give, and can more closely model the actual challenges they want solved. And at absolutely no point are the powers even remotely a threat to them.
Add in the additional level of good planning of setting up Dyson swarms around suns in largely unoccupied systems and they can readily move on when they feel they'd accomplished enough with way more energy and without having killed anyone, thus possibly picking up more enemies and preventing other entities from moving on to that planet for insights as well. (Or, given their absurd tech and abilities, a huge number of Dyson spheres might be well inside their capabilities)
*Coughs* So, after realizing that providing a setting change isn't a story prompt... well, I'll try to figure some out later.
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And completely different idea, here since I don't want to double-post: Taylor receives a trump power which allows her to manifest essentially any effect she could possibly want... but only at the culmination of an artistic performance of some sort from her, and the power of the effect is directly proportionate to the emotions created during said performance. So, she apprentices herself to Canary, both diverting the canon trainwreck and giving her a great trainer for how to act to maximize the effects, as well as acquiring at least one artistic talent to take advantage of with her power. She might even learn that she can use group performances and take advantage of the emotions created by everyone in it instead of just herself.
Possibly result: Canary and (Insert Taylor's cape name here) travel the country providing artistic performances and culminating in some beneficial effect at the end. Healing, granting answers to their most vexing question that isn't blocked by Zion/Eden/Abaddon, whatever they can come up with.
You could have a different character, of course, but I'd love to see how Taylor would react to having a power that so strongly encourages traits she has no confidence in, and how she would act with a power that is of very limited "traditional heroing" capability but significant ways to help people beforehand. I think she could readily fix up the Ships' Graveyard, the ferry, and a bunch of other things with her power.
