Officials used to drive activity with, in most cases, engaging and invested leaders in game. That's not really the case anymore as most have either left voluntarily or been chased away by game and community developments. Official factions were groups of people you played with regularly, and the decrease to a limited number of active members and the reduced time needed to remain "official" shows how little interest in a particular group there is. If there's no interest, effort to maintain it is wasted. The lore remains the lore whether you're indie or tagged.
I think St. Denis is right. If you want to play, play, and leave "officialdom" to those with higher goals for whatever reason they may have. Otherwise, they're not really needed.
