Once upon a time, we had a fair number of player factions that, while strongly aligned with a particular NPC faction, differed in certain (often major) ways, both in primary goals/ideology and even in faction allies/enemies. AW was one such example, and they got much grief for it from 'true' Zoners, but that's to be expected from a parent faction towards its more radical/different splinters. HF could be considered one as well, with origins and a command structure different than the rest of the Hackers, and with slightly different goals.
We don't really see these kind of factions anymore, save for the few stragglers still remaining. While most factions have some 'thing' to make them slightly unique (at least they do if they aren't trying to represent the parent NPC faction as a whole, such as the BAF/KNF/LN/RM/etc.), the vast majority of them are still primarily canon. They might be defensive-oriented, or offensive-oriented, or whatever, but they're not really different from the canon faction in any noticeable way.
Why do you think this is? Is the community just not that accepting of any divergence from canon NPC factions anymore? I'm not saying that closely following an NPC faction is a bad thing, and most factions probably should, but I think there's a lot of room in Discovery for unique splinter groups that, while they might be Outcasts (just as an example), have somewhat different goals and methods than the rest of the Outcasts. Maybe the other Outcasts don't like them very much, but they are Outcasts, even if they're crazy/deluded/weird/heretical.
