I wonder if all technology in the AoL was powered by OP like this, or did they also use electricity? If they used OP for everything then I wonder what effect this might have had.

OP is said to run the wheel, and apparently it is not infinite (or so I understand) in the traditional sense, upon use it just returns back to the true source be reused with no loss of energy. However, if we assume that AoL population was around the same as ours (at 7 billion), then that would require LOTS of OP beind drawn from from the source the run all those gadgets and other items everyone was using.

I wonder if drawing so much OP away from the source and the wheel made the pattern weaker, which in turn made the DO stronger and made it possible for the bore to be made, because the lack of OP meant the pattern was not running at full power anymore and as such was incapable of holding the DO fully contained causing the weak spot that the AS drilled into. That might be another reason why the DO always breaks free around the AoL time, when OP use is at maximum.