Tribal society WAS bad. Tribal society has never flourished, not once in human history. Tribes were perpetually at war, fighting not in pitched battles but by trading night raids. This is what North American was before it was conquered. Sioux, Arikara, Pawnee, etc. etc. all killing each other. Tribal society evolved to city states which evolved to nation states with evolved to empire states.
King Agamemnon did a great thing by uniting the various Greek states. "I made a nation out of fire worshippers and snake eaters".
"tribes didnt build iphones" mentality is so reductionist. is life better now? obviously, 100%. but tribal society carried human beings through what? a million years?
tribal society didnt flourish, it survived. now we have mrna vaccines, nuclear weapons, and social media. we can still say our lives and societies are obviously superior while recognizing and respecting that tribal society survived such a long time that we have to respect it.
i also have to laugh at the "they were all just killing each other" in this context. that's an improper argument, its used to deny the false idea that native americans were peaceful. its moot when arguing society vs tribes. europeans were all killing each other for 1000 years too before we arrived here.