Trouble is, I don't believe the way the Dominion was written, to be "interestingly complicated," was intentional.
Why else would there be three distinct races instead of one, and why else would one of those races be intimately related to one of the show's main characters? Designing three races and making one of them Odo's long-lost family is not a recipe for a one-dimensional adversary. Either the DS9 writers were profoundly stupid, or they were intentionally creating an adversary that had the potential to be interestingly complicated.
The Jem'Hadar and Vorta have a degree of freewill because otherwise they would just be drones and have no personality (and probably also be less effective warriors and diplomats/administrators respectively). The Founders are shown to care deeply about Odo because it contrasts with their capacity for brutality toward "solids."
I think the writers just made it up as they went, as TV writers usually do, and the parts didn't fit so well.
The idea that the Dominion was created to be more complex than the standard one-dimensional adversary is not incompatible with the idea that the writers also made it up as they went along and that there are some inconsistencies.
However, a certain amount of ambiguity is definitely good. Take the two options in the poll. There is no contradiction at all between the idea that the Founders are driven at least in part by paranoia, and the idea that they are bent on conquest because paranoia is in fact one very common motivating factor for militaristic behavior and brutality.
I've often wondered about the female changeling's statement to Odo that having him rejoin the link was more important than the AQ.
What about the changeling ambassador, Martok, and Bashir — all who were killed? And the Bashir changeling was planning to die.
Is Odo *that* much more special, or was she trying to manipulation him?
Weyoun comes up to her and compliments the FC on her manipulation of Odo. She rebukes him and emphasizes that Odo's return to the Link is more important than conquest.
On the other hand, we know that some changelings are willing to sacrifice themselves to further the Dominion's military goals, and that the Link is comfortable with this type of sacrifice on a limited basis.
OMFG!!! A contradiction! Call the continuity police!
Or we could consider that similar "inconsistencies" thrive in human societies that actually exist back here on earth in reality. Human beings are certainly capable of loving their family members more than material gain or military success, yet we deem that certain sacrifices are necessary to protect our society as a whole. Parents may send their children off to die in war, yet go on loving them and would certainly consider their children more important, intrinsically, than whatever military goal might be achieved by their childrens' sacrifices.
Beyond that, we know as of
The Search that the main goal of the Dominion's military activities is not conquest
per se but the protection of the Link. So the Founders' motivation can be summed up pretty easily: they value the lives of changelings, but they don't value the lives of solids who they see as an existential threat that needs to be controlled, dominated and, if necessary, destroyed. If this implies a certain loss of changeling life, then that sacrifice is considered tolerable on a limited basis and is doubtless honored as a selfless behavior that furthers the goals of changeling society as a whole. Inconsistent? Yeah, sure, in the same way that human society often is.
