But just think how long you would need to explain things in-game, with vigilante it says it up front
Same with researcher, imagine the time you will need to explain why you are not doing x or doing y, whilst at present when you see researcher on the ID it already carries baggage.
Eh? It gives you more RP opportunities. Someone's curious, you answer them in-rp, and all is well. It's up to the player whether they want to explain themselves fully or not.
To me seeing vigilante already sets the scene for building the RP, and opens up a dialogue if needed straight away. Setting that scene each encounter and open up the dialogue ain't going to happen when you start with by seeing FL. I don't think I will enjoy being given the life history of what sort of FL they are before I can enter the RP meaningfully.
FL
Trader
Smuggler
Merc
Vigilante
Researcher struck me as a good set of starting points, now we are just going to see FL's everywhere, starting each encounter from scratch.
You don't need someone's life story, you just need to -talk to them-. Enter into a conversation and ask what they're doing, or do you want to blow them up that badly?
The concept of the person that is affiliated/employed/controlled by a faction but does not directly belong to it can be easily transferred into the game by using:
Merc ID/Freelancer ID + "Faction that pays you"-IFF = a person working for a company on more than a short term basis.
Also: you will get less tech-nerf that way (if you use the faction guns of the IFF faction). Don't know whether it is already implemented, but a source that I remeber as reliable said it will be.