The fact is that everyone plays as if every unit they owned was
personally loyal to the PC (actually the player). So why not leave
the system that way? I don't think faction trees small benefits
(primarily hiding affiliations) are worth the trouble.
In other words, I'm against faction trees if you have to "munge" them
into unrealistic behaviors to provide playability.
I can't give my opinion about faction trees in T'Nyc because Steve
killed me before I could build up a faction :-).
-- Scott T.