Honestly? Alignment only means as much as your group can agree upon. It was ripped off from Moorhouse who, for as much as we want to faff about it, had chaos and law as good guys vs bad guys. D&D/PF has never had a universally acceptable system of alignment because it refuses to set a philosophical standard, and so is a bunch of random examples with legions of players yelling at each other about it. For goodness sake, the game can't decide what cannibalism is let alone if it is [evil].

If you want to make it more meaningful in your setting you need to set a philosophical basis for it. The easiest is "Law" means "Law of Steve," which is whatever arbitrary code you want to set. "Chaos" is opposition to "Steve." I know this may seem like I'm denigrating the systems, but think about it: "Barbarian" tribes of flat out honor zombies like the Shoanti are "Chaotic" because that is the alignment they give folks in loincloths. The tradionalists who drove out Amiri could not possibly have been Lawful because then they couldn't be Barbarians, but if she overthrew her tribe and instituted gender equality she would (in that way) suddenly become Lawful and lose the ability to rage. This stuff can only make sense if "Law" is not based on "Lawful Authority," but based on a universal constant like "Adherence to Steve." I know people disagree, we can go back to 2e where half the alignments were "literally insane," but the fact is despite people playing for years upon years D&D/PF has never had anything resembling an internally consistent alignment system no matter how much people declare it.

So, long story short, for your game? Either say screw it and let your players play how they want, or set out a philosophical basis for "good" and "evil" as well as "law" and "chaos" instead of the lore material faffing about and avoiding the direct question. Otherwise, if you try to make alignment a larger part of the game, you will pretty much just be fucking around with your players based on your own, personal philosophical beliefs without any way for them to know it. This is the path to alignment arguments, and that is the way to madness (or, you know, shitty feelings and people quitting your group, whatever).