I mean, technically speaking Paul isn't actually a very good lantern himself relying almost exclusively on his ring's AI to do everything for him.
...fuckin
wat.
"Isn't actually a very good Lantern"? The guy is basically life partners with
Ophidian. He literally
wrote the book on how to be an effective Orange Lantern without losing your sanity. He achieved avarice enlightenment in a matter of
a few minutes, whilst under enormous pressure. He also
wrote the book on how sane Orange Lanterns can be effective in combat, even against highly capable/powerful opponents, and has shared some invaluable inspiration with the GLC that is slowly making its way through their training doctrine. He's also such a good Lantern that he's noted from the very beginning how important it was to augment your ring-based capabilities with technological, magical, and resource-based capabilities as well, so that you get hard-countered by as few things and situations as possible.
Plus, I mean...he literally taught the Embodiment of Avarice
how to avarice better.
If you want an Orange Lantern that is just really good at making really strong, simple constructs that does not rely at all on ring AI, then get Larfleeze. And as we see in canon/this story, Larfleeze is exactly
why being "a very good lantern that doesn't rely on ring AI" is a terrible thing for an Orange Lantern. It means that you're pretty insane, unable to prioritize or maintain perspective, unable to have any kind of long-term goals or self-control, unable to adapt or solve any problem that doesn't involve lots of indiscriminate brute force and assimilation.
Not to mention the fact that Paul has repeatedly shown that he actually
does have some significant capability even without his ring. Like when he forcibly called his ring back off of Truggs, taking Truggs' finger with him. Or when he called Ragnar's ring off of his finger
in the middle of a close-range duel, whilst unarmed. Or the fact that his soul is basically baby-Ophidian, complete with the ability to Brand people?
