The trouble I see with that is Clark himself. He wasn't even close to a savior figure at that point. So I think the NKers might have passed him by as completely unworthy at that point. OR, if they deemed him acceptable, Clark had no real ties to the world (let's face it, being with Lana was more depressing for him than uplifting), so he might have just left with them, thereby destroying Utopia before Tempus could ever attempt to wreck it.
