Maybe a Lord didn't sound very impressive. If two Sovereigns in Aika and Old Wan couldn't change and stabilize the situation, then how could a mere Lord do so?
But there were two main issues to account for here.
First… the Seventh Heaven didn't have many Lords to begin with. Jojo was able to have a huge impact despite still being in the Omniscient Realm. It wasn't until the Eighth Heaven where Lords became a bit more commonplace, but even then, there might only be one in several trillion cultivators. These weren't existences that just popped up everywhere even if Ryu's life now made it feel like it was so.
And second…
Starlight was far from a normal Lord.
Starlight was under the tutelage of a hegemon of the Eighth Heaven. It was also said that he was granted the Chaotic Silk Meridians from this master of his, and as a result, his power had grown at an exponential rate the more perfectly he assimilated with it.
