I'm all for Zoners being independent of each other for RP reasons, but there are 2 things that this independence among freeport affiliated groups will not change:
1: The casual allegedly lol-whut whales which call on zoner neutrality when they get pirated... those whales people seem so annoyed with... they will still be there. Have the Zoners actually ever taking measures against a pirate who pirated those? A whale pirated by an Outcast is likely to be pirated somewhere near FP10. Most likely FP10 was one of his trade stations. So he will ask the Zoners of FP10 to FR5 that pirate, or complain to the Outcasts. Doenst make a difference if he asks just the FP10 Zoners or all Zoners in Sirius. If the pirate attacked him near FP10, he probably doesnt care about FP9, just about FP10. So... this part of the alleged "problem of zoner power" will not go away if you split Zoners into Freeport groups. If you ever considered someone being pirated trying to come up with arguments to keep his stuff a problem... that is.
2: The guy "bossing around people near the Freeports"... where a pirate got annoyed that he couldnt pirate near a Freeport or shoot in the NFZ, so he put up a bounty on all Zoners to show everyone how p***ed he is. The evil Zoner that didnt side with the poor pirate... and the poor pirate that got totally upset that someone who lets him dock also protects other people from him... they will still be there if the Zoners get split up or even if the only combat ships they fly in future will be eagles. The Zoner doesnt have to kill him.. he can FR5 him or complain to the pirate's Outcast bosses. And the pirate that gets a red swollen neck when his victim takes refuge at a freeport... he will still be there too, and this Outcast will rant just as loudly if he gets FR5ed only at FP10, an not on FP9 aswell.
This anti-zoner lynchmob fad that is going around is a sociological phenomenon you can expect in regular intervals here, no matter how you try to appease. Some people get angry and know how to manipulate certain other people, and they get their powerplay. Whether Zoners have Juggies or not, or whether they are united or not... some people will get p***ed that they couldnt pirate someone, and as long as people like to join lynchmobs, this sort of thing will keep happening.