Vecna plan or plot armor in E4?

Episode 4 of the new season was absolutely bonkers and I loved it! Pretty much only positive things to say about it, and now I’m very disappointed that I’ll have to wait a month to get more. My one main critique has to be that it seemed that the characters all had a lot of plot armor. I get that Vecna’s main interest was in those kids, and that he claims that Will can help him, but that shouldn’t mean he takes extra care to keep anyone else safe. Demogorgons kind of just pushing main characters away instead of ripping them to shreds. Vecna just walking away and leaving many of his main enemies unscathed, having been within range to hurt them personally. Do you all think this is just plot armor, or is there potential for logic behind this from Vecna’s POV?