-there were lots of rep oddities in earlier Discovery. ex: To rep an IMG character in the Taus meant flying missions against Outcasts. Eventually your rep would go green with Corsairs. IMG ships rep'd in the Omegas would kill Corsairs in missions and be nuetral or green to Outcasts.
-many indy IMG were on very chummy terms with Benitez Corsairs and freely moved thru Corsair territory
-pre modern mining, there wasn't much profit in being in a mining faction. IMG gave me RP excuse to visit distant systems under the guise of 'prospecting / exploring'.