You lost my support at "choose the F2P route". It's not meant to be a route. F2P is meant to either spend a couple of bucks after they see they like it, go p2p eventually, or be punching bags for the pleasure od whales. It's not to anyones liking, but this game is 1st business, then pleasure.
That said, f2p does remarkably well. I took rank 2 yday without spending a dime. Taking top 3 in fleet consistently. Started dec 2017 without reading any guides or any preparation.
As for diversity, it is in this game. In my sgard top 50 is Emp with 10 diferent setups ( sith emp, empire emp, tie pilot emp, shore emp, protect nihilus emp etc. Mine is KRU emp) there are NS, first CLS popped up, some chaze, some wiggs still. Plenty of diversity for me. The reasom why you dont see any droid squads or clones is that there will always be a team that is slightly better than the rest. And everyone will go for what is easiest. So your problem lies in human mechanics, not game mechanics.
