So CG just abandoned the "neutral alignment" idea, didn't they.

I don't like how a new television show has somehow come to direct the game.  

Let me reword it then, the DS/LS alignments (for the most part) seem very fitting of the characters within the BH faction. I do agree BFSOJ fits as neutral. Not sure IG-88 fits personally, I'm pretty sure he had HK-47's thing for eliminating meatbags, but I could be wrong. For Ventress from BB, I'd argue she might've been more mercenary than BH. Neutral under those parameters for Jawas seems fine to me. Although in universe I don't think most see Droids as sentient beings.

I feel there is so much potential to having a neutral faction that can play to the strengths of both LS and DS, but I don't know if that makes it more difficult from a balancing perspective. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Hondo in the shows, but, I have no interest in MORE Neutral toons.
2 words......... DATA-CRONS & LEADERSHIPS
Datacrons suck.
They suck a LOT more when they are for "LS Scoundrels, or DS UAFU"
Teams like Jabba & Starkiller already can't use them effectively.
I really don't need MORE of that issue frankly.

Leaderships are already split by Faction/Alignment.
Characters that don't "Fit" just weaken the team more.

Thanks for your clarification. And I was thinking more of Ventress from the end of TCW where she collaborates with Ahsoka in the Coruscant underworld when AT is being framed and that train heist episode. Ventress the Mercenary is also a possibility for a neutral character, I agree. 

Neutrals should count as both LS and DS.  That way Hondo, and potential new or updated neutral units, benefit from both LS and DS uniques and datacrons.  Hondo taking advantage of light side and dark side call-outs seems way more in line with his character than being restricted from them.

The neutral tag has been in the game since it came out, it was there for like what 7-8 years before Hondo came out, they probably had plans way back when, then got new devs and everything so it just got scrapped, then a dev probably went “let’s not have a tag that has no one in it” so they found hondo and chose to add him 

I was just thinking about this over the weekend, how only one character has the tag and why not others? My initial thought is "are there enough known neutral characters" to make it worthwhile to have them all team up. For instance, if Wampa was switched to neutral would it make sense to put it with Hondo?

Neutrals probably shouldn't have abilities which work with other neutrals, but with their other tags, because LS units at least agree they're LS aligned. This might make things more complicated when adding more characters who are neutral, because while they have neutral alignment in common, what does that really mean? LS goal is to stop the DS, and DS goal is to beat LS. Neutrality really has no goal but to stay out of it, side with the highest bidder, or side with the most dangerous for safety. And if you think of it there were probably more times in the movies and shows where neutral factions sided with the LS to go after the empire. 

Changing current characters to neutral is also challenging, because some characters straddle the line between the sides. Are all BH really DS, or would some become LS for the right price? But we see them as DS in most of the content. What about smugglers? Technically Han was working for Jabba as a smuggler, at least for one job. I wouldn't say he's DS or neutral, based on the side he ended up on. Now consider how this could affect current teams by removing units from lineups, and possibly even ships down the line. Until we have a neutral fleet the neutral ships are useless. And if a ship has more than one pilot does that ship count as LS/DS, Neutral, or both? 

Just things that would need considering. 

To me this game has been bandaging its releases for years. Character X releases with a cool ability most characters can't do anything against. Character Y releases to counteract X's ability by giving Y a cool ability no one can counter. Then comes Character Z to fix Y, etc. And datacrons feel like an extension of this to help older characters be temporarily more useful.

So it seems like for however long they took to plan Hondo out and get him into the game, that time plus two years they haven't figured out a plan to continue the neutral faction. Best bet should be to just undo the whole concept and switch him to DS. No point in having ONE neutral toon in the entire game. 

Seems so, but I can see them down the line finding some character to make a GL that is neutral and add a bunch of new characters to go with it.