I think it’s worth noting that this is generally not how literary criticism is done? It is good and right to accept that authors are often mistaken about the meaning of their own work. If you can explain an idea simply then you do so simply—the reason to create art is to express ideas that lose something in the process of being simplified, and so artists expect (or should expect) that the meaning of their own work is not fully legible to them. That is to say, it is possible for this to be a completely correct reading without Le Guin herself having ever been aware of it.
I think it’s worth noting that this is generally not how literary criticism is done? It is good and right to accept that authors are often mistaken about the meaning of their own work. If you can explain an idea simply then you do so simply—the reason to create art is to express ideas that lose something in the process of being simplified, and so artists expect (or should expect) that the meaning of their own work is not fully legible to them. That is to say, it is possible for this to be a completely correct reading without Le Guin herself having ever been aware of it.