The restarts from my understanding are for the most part the same all around, except the 'bw specific' or 'gallic' ones or others of that nature. Most of them have most of the bases mapped for trading purposes, including ones that generally would be illegal for you to dock on as your respective faction (OCs knowing Corsair bases, IC with Gallic Lawful bases, etc.)
It's a time saving measure so that the folks who make the restarts don't have to go around creating each and every faction's preferred restart. Close enough is better than not at all, ya know?
Also, as far as I'm aware, it's not a client-side thing. Restarts are purely server-side.