As an organization, the Alpha Lanterns were always doomed to failure, for the exact same reasons as the Manhunters, and they're one of many examples of why the Lanterns Corps are better off with all the Guardians dead, because the Guardians have always seemed the resent the free will of their own Lanterns, even though Green Lanterns are selected on the basis of their willpower.
In that sense, the Guardians really are kind of like Mr. Zuss in Archibald MacLeish's J.B. - they want their servants to have free will, but they'll punish them out of sheer spite for exercising it too much.