After my recent first read thru of WOT,  I am now reading "The World of the Wheel of Time". 
I get the sense that a higher order Being or Beings, similar to the Q continuum in Star Trek , are running a set of experiments in pocket universes to explore the reactions of the people in each universe and concepts Iike free will and thought. 
After the breaking of the world in the Rand Land universe,  the concept of a Creator developed as an explanation of what had occurred.  
The Dark One was left as part of this experiment as a test to see if a desire for a new, ultimate source of energy would overcome any danger that could be the result of this endeavor.

Edited July 19, 20242 yr by Dan G
Typo

That could be an interesting take on "why" time is circular, to give a statistically sound result, lol.

 

The Creator is a bit of a fuzzy concept in the books though He does speak to Rand in tEotW doesn't he? Or maybe that is not really canon, just sort pushed aside as one of those strange things that happen in the first books.