I think that a lot of the confusion that comes from the story is people taking the whole “it was planned every step of the way” thing a little too literally.

Personally when I hear that the Jailer/Dreadlords have been playing 4D chess, I translate it as they are extremely good at making decisions on the fly. The story is far too complicated with far too many unexpected/not guaranteed things happening for them to have literally predicted every single outcome. A god-like being and a group of masters of deception would most likely be able to make quick decisions that will not derail their plan though. The Primus is described similarly as an extremely skilled tactician that doesn’t lose in battle, but that doesn’t mean that every step of the battle was meticulously planned and each reaction was thought of well before it even began.

I’m also not sure we should take Zovaal and Dreadlords claims at face value, as they’re quite incentivized to act like everything went exactly as they planned and nothing went wrong. I could also be completely wrong, and I’m fine with that.