In an agrarian society the farmers
are more important than merchants and artisans. Even in the US, urbanization only exceeded 50% in 1920 while industrialization of the US began in 1860's.
you cannot have 90% of the population as farmers and treat them like shit, while expecting a stable society.
the most important distinction of societies before industrialism wasn't in technology, as everyone had roughly the same technology from 200 BC to 1200 AD with only minor differences. Even guns were not the determining factor - Chinese, Turks, Persians and Indians had guns and cannons too. Up to 1700, most empires were stable once the New World got stabilized. Even colonization of the Americas, while hugely disruptive globally, didn't change the status quo for Spain much. They didn't go on a conquering spree with American resources, after all.
It wasn't until industrialization, steel, railroads, repeating rifles and steam engines that African tribes could be conquered due to the huge logistical challenges. And the US succeeded in the defeat of the Plains Natives where Spain failed because even horses, iron armor and guns were not enough, but railroads and steam engines were.
the most important distinctions of preindustrial societies was 1. internal cohesion, 2. population size, 3. historical records
that is why European kings spent tons of time and money fighting wars between Catholicism and Protestantism, and sponsoring illuminated gold plated Bibles. It wasn't that they really cared about obscure church doctrines, it was because allowing a religious split in your country weakens 1/3 of the fundamental determinants of state power and making the church unhappy weakens another 1/3.
that is also why Chinese rulers put tons of emphasis on the bureaucrat, scholar and farmer class and sponsored works of history by the bureaucrats, even to the exclusion of other forms of literature like the novel (which was unpopular until the Ming). Internal cohesion, population size through food production and keeping a detailed historical record were the extraordinary parts, everything else is just doing the “best known practices" that's worked for the past 1000 years and solving specific problems.
I suspect that the Chinese model with some updates may end up being the right one in the end, as low hanging fruit of technologies are picked.
