This working paper proposes a comparative and legally cautious framework for analyzing closed governance, symbolic control, sustainability rhetoric, and public discourse in tourist territories, using Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador, as a case study. The research does not accuse any individual, institution, political actor, guild, or private organization of criminal conduct, sectarian behavior, or psychological manipulation. Instead, it examines observable patterns of public discourse, institutional legitimacy, reputational pressure, and civic participation. The study builds on previous documentary research that identified tensions between the institutional promotion of Baños as a sustainable, responsible, biosecure, and nature-based destination, and persistent territorial pressures related to wastewater treatment, vehicular saturation, public space occupation, environmental degradation, risk management, and participatory governance. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, tourism governance studies, political sociology, and comparative literature on high-demand systems and coercive dynamics, the paper explores how certain public narratives may normalize a single development script, delegitimize criticism, ritualize participation, concentrate symbolic legitimacy, and frame dissent as a threat to the destination image. The purpose of this paper is not to weaken Baños as a tourist destination, but to strengthen it as a living territory. A genuinely sustainable destination must be able to measure its impacts, protect its rivers, regulate its growth, include independent cultural actors, and distinguish promotional success from territorial well-being.