What if the Mayans practiced human sacrifice to control their population numbers, and all the mythology and ritual was just and effort to make the misery of it more emotionally tollerable?

Such internal sacrifice is a good way to control population levels if the goal is to maintain a status quo. However, a long term goal of status quo invites total collapse.

Progress, however, requires population controls based on outward competition. This would make environmentally friendly war the best option. (Ban all chemicals, diseases, and projectiles.)

To pursue a policy of internal sacrifice to control population levels at the same time as challenging o change the international order would be pure folly.