Implications of the Gambit Update

So, for all three other people here who still play Gambit (who else here Dredgen x11? Just me? Alright I guess), you may have noticed it got a fair bit of content for it's supposed final update. Some old maps from Forsaken were brought back, but that's not the thing I want to talk about.

The big change that came with the launch of Final Shape was the introduction of two new factions to the arena: The Lucent Brood and the Shadow Legion.

Obviously this is nice from a gameplay perspective because it adds some much-needed variety to the mode, but I want to talk about what this means from a lore perspective.

Does the introduction of the Lucent Brood and Shadow Legion into the Gambit arena mean that, while we were knee-deep in the Traveler's guts trying to stop some smoky bitch who gets literally too handsy, Drifter was just strolling around in Savathün's Throne World and Neomuna, casually yoinking Hive Guardians and cloned Centurions so we've got something fun to do once we head back to the Tower? Or, considering the fact that he was there for the Excision mission, was he prancing around the battlefield, shoving Hive Ghosts into a burlap sack every opportunity he got?

I know full well the factions were just added for gameplay reasons but the implications it makes in-universe make me chuckle to think about.