Intelligence affairs are always of utmost importance. In any endeavor, if one can anticipate others by understanding everything in advance, then victory is naturally within grasp. This is the essence of the saying "know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles."
For both the former Great Ming Divine Dynasty and today's Heavenly Court, Emperor Zhu Houji sought to command his own authority and implement his will. Thus, he inevitably needed to grasp intelligence and understand the dynamics of all parties to seize opportunities and strategically expand his power.
As opposed to the times of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, where one only needed to manage one's own domain, even if focused on the whole world, these issues were insignificant when the Dynasty was a united entity.