Weren't the crew already doomed before WAU

[cantremember]

The way I see it, even if the WAU didn't do anything crazy and focused on its regular tasks, the crew would've been done for eventually.

A year or so (I don't remember the exact dates) they began to starve to death, evidently they didn't have the means to fish effectively.
Even if they could produce their own food, the station would only be able to generate power for another decade or two.

Honestly what was their long-term plan, what after that? There's no surface and the station had no supplies, it would slowly break down, or be plunged into cold darkness, whichever comes first.

It is the WAU that allowed them to learn how to create the ark, which they launched into space with a longevity of thousands of years. Although probably not intentionally so by the WAU, in the end it turned out better than it would have without it.