It promotes creating characters while already keeping in mind possible optimization of mechanics such as favour accumulation in a low-pop group.
I know you said in your initial post that this isn’t ‘just go and play in a low-pop group’ thing, but as someone who plays in the Vigil (roster 4 people) and has never been a part of a faction, playing in low-pop is not the solution. I haven’t seen any favour in six weeks now (petition pending), and I am very active both in hunts and attending events even if I do not host them because of IC reasons. We are certainly not the ones raking in these thousands of favour, I can promise you.