There are fell spirit masters in soul land, even fewer that are strong enough to matter, and most of the civilians soul masters are in the spirit hall, because if it weren’t for them, awakening martial soul would be almost impossible. All the power would be held be novels and yada yada. To be fair, if it wasn’t for her love brain towards Tang san and her mother, things would have been more smooth and easy. Spirit hall even protect villages and beasts from fallen soul masters and Extinction; so, yeah, I think they are better. You just have to look at Dou II and Dou III.