The thing that I like very much about Benitez is that their friendships extend beyond Disco, beyond other games that they are now playing together and even beyond the computer screens. They meet in RL at times, have fun and such. That is something that I never expected in an online gaming community. Glad that I am a part of them, if not, very late
And as Jose mentioned, official factions receive not much distinction from other factions for the amount of work that they put in which causes less activity due to majority of the players opting to play as indys rather than official faction members. I myself feel a tad more independant while playing as an indy rather than a official faction member, (mostly for the pew pew factions). So, something that gives official faction an edge over indys could be another helping step in increasing their activity, and which in turn will increase the server population due to the fact that most of the times, official factions offer a higher quality of RP than the indys or unofficial factions(most of the times). That would solve the case of people leaving due to quality of RP decreasing and lolwuttism increasing in the sever nowadays.
And yes, I am still a very basic PvP'er and get beaten to it most of the times, which makes me feel bad. So, anything that gives RP a slight edge over PvP would satisfy my personal greed