I'm a little confused why exactly the Dark Multiverse would be where these alternate timelines are, I'm pretty sure the whole idea of the Dark Multiverse is that "everything bad that could happen, happens in here," its practically described as infinite realities of nightmare, so not really sure why we would even assume that all of these alternate branches are "realities of nightmare", or why would they even grow there, that seems like a massive leap with no evidence.
You do also bring up something pretty important,
Zero Hour, which also has a pretty interesting scan to this discussion.
This one, which explicitly says that the universe dying also collapses a multitude of its timelines, which is of course pretty important to this conversation, considering there was one earth by the time of Zero Hour, and showcases that the Earth collapsing also collapses its timelines, which would obviously make no sense unless that Earth encompasses its timelines.
Another point that I'd also bring up is
The Next, which also explicitly mentions the concept of the "Metaverse" having the whole logic of
each moment creating infinite timelines of its own, all within a Metaverse. A pretty peculiar thing that's referenced repeatedly in this run is that the metaverse is pretty much just one spacetime continuum, this is seen here for example, where the collapse of
the spacetime continuum also collapses the
metaverse with it, similarly to Zero Hour, this too happens due to time as a whole
unfolding in on itself. This idea is also seemingly referenced a couple of times where the main universe is described as a "
reality-cluster," which is also referenced a couple of times throughout that entire run. Obviously showcasing that these Earths contain separate, infinite realities within them.
As for Elizios comments: I would have made that assumption if the editor himself didn't say that they were within the earths, it just seems like ignoring that piece of evidence even though it would make the most sense.
Also inducing the weird, vague split rules that were supposedly not even fully reviewed after a whole year by the team doesn't make sense when 1.
You guys treat universes as constants unbound by the split 2. DiDio was an editor, its an official DC statement not just some Word of God.
There seems to be a whole lot of agreements here and a whole week has passed, I myself did not change my opinion, do we apply the changes or wait further?