I don't pretend to know shiz about Zoners or how they RP, but hopefully I'll give an insight as to how an outsider views it.
To me, Zoners symbolize the value of freedom. They were formed in the first place to live their own life, away in seclusion, away from corruption and moral decay of the houses and their limiting laws, and living life as they saw fit. With that conclusion, you can safely say that each Zoner has the freedom to RP as he likes, because of the inherent freedom provided in the Zoners. You could be a smuggler, pimp, gay guy etc etc, anything you like.
But, because the zoners hit life everywhere on the fringe, they had to make accommodations for them or the zoners would be ripe for the picking. So they developed the concept of Freeport, a safe haven, a resting place for all. All this, so they can continue living their life, lead their lifestyle.
So every Freeport has different demographics, different sorts of troubles to deal with. Hence I like and endorse the idea of RP-per-Freeport on most issues, each freeport in-charge will have various issues to deal with, and different people to please and keep at bay.
Zoners are very diverse, and the only thing that keeps them together is a common desire to live life according to their own rules. Following from this, I think the only thing that can unite the Zoners is when their lifestyle is threatened (i.e Blanket bounty on Zoners), otherwise, on most issues, I can see them divided.