I think that in general the world is better off (concerning the necessity of being a creature pov) because there is a lot more wealth and technology and so humans don't feel as much of a need to destroy each other for lack of resources. I take steven pinker with a grain of salt because all the graphs should be looked at in more detail but it appears to be hopeful in at least some ways.
when the poor have more wealth things tend to improve. when 1st world countries stabilize the forest in their area tend to grow back. world hunger is basically becoming eradicated.
with all that said I still don't like the world. I don't like all the humans trying to force their wills upon me. I don't like how nature is so harsh and i'm always bounded by some kind of necessity to do something just to keep existing. nature is beautiful and yet it has the same curse we all suffer from. it struggles to be at the expense of other parts of itself.
I think all the hardships in the world were for the sake of making things work via higher realities of the spirit but i don't feel very connected to anyone compared to how I think things should be. I don't feel like fighting against the tide of separated souls that are in general against me since I believe that freedom is very important because it is the foundation for there to be real goodness in the world and for people to have a spiritual life. freedom is dangerous because freedom means a world like this can be or even worse worlds can be.
i'm not a fan of forcing people to be good. I don't think that counts as "a better world", it just counts as a bunch of crazy apes who forced things on each other enough to make their lives easier. it need not be, but for some reason it is. maybe one day humans will learn or maybe this world is a throw away world where we start off from scratch in the lowest possible kind of reality and things will be fixed in the progression of life after we perish.
how you go about doing something is very important. I think how you do things is less important for people who think they have one life and then that's that. why focus so much in higher ideals if you can get what you want and need by other less savory methods?