I never got to this point in Automata but I have finished Replicant and I do understand what they're saying by "atoning in some way for our past sins".
Their medical Androids, but in nier G/R *spoiler warning* they observe the Replucants and posses magic and helped with the gestal experiment and created 3 floating magic books, and died in that game. Yet they are here in automata that remember the things they did in that game, they even have kaine's weapons here too. If it is true yoko taru didnt write this, I believe it
As D&P said themselves, there was a TYPE of Devola and Popola androids that were working in pairs. In the NieR: Replicant/Gestalt era there were other replicant settlements, and those were overseed and maintained by different Devolas and Popolas too.