Yes, it can be tough.
Particularly with a BHG faction for multiple reasons.
1. There is a biased opinion on BHG within the community. I joined after, but apparently there used to be BHG BCs running around hunting when those caps were meant to be used against the Order and Nomads
2. The BHG has a very large zone to operate and multiple roles to fulfill. Trying to keep tabs on your agents or even worse, keeping them from being to spread apart to help each other, is one heck of a job managing your agents based on their availability and time zones.
3. BHG requires alot of forum work. A necessity due to the bounty boards.
Imagine trying to launch a fighter based faction. One that is able to operate in almost all of Sirius. One that has the eyes of the community on them (or more precisely, the feeling that all eyes are on them) in case of a slip.
It's definitely a faction that needs to start small, focusing on one Zone and slowly expanding as the player base increases.
It's definitely a faction that needs to prove itself first before being accepted, the toughest part. It's possible to be too strict or not strict enough.
It's primary body, Hunters in the Houses, is made of small ships, the caps are for a war with Order and Nomad, so maintaining an appeal to keep a presence in house can be tricky. You need to keep enough agents interested as the only way to take down pirates in large ships is with numbers.
To cut it short, the more and more I watch a BHG faction develop, the more and more I realize the pressure and no doubt stress that accompanies it.
I hope the BHL does continue to make the effort. It takes more than one BHG faction to cover Sirius and friendly competition would be well received