The whole thrust of early Gnosticism was that only a select few highly educated people (and thus certainly of the establishment, just not the church establishment, not that it makes much sense to speak of a church establishment when speaking of the early church) were going to be able to escape this corrupt material world created by the demiurge.
On that point, were they not in agreement with the karmic and Taoist paths of south and east Asia?
Yes and no.
While some of the karmic religions, especially Buddhism and Jainism, are of the opinion that this world is essentially corrupt and that it is both desirable and possible to detach from it, the core Daoist teachings are focused not upon escaping a cycle of rebirth and redeath but upon how to best act within this life, regardless of whether you think it is a one shot, or part of a cycle. I'll grant that Buddhism has had a significant impact upon East Asian thought, but it isn't integral to an understanding of the Dao. I am decidedly not a Buddhist, nor would I want to be, but I find the philosophy of the Dao quite compatible, in both its Taoist and Confucianist modes, with a wide variety of cosmological beliefs, not just resurrection.