Whole-heartedly seconded! I recc-ed this series way back when as well -- and like you had only a mild inkling of what the Faction Paradox is. I would wager that even the person who wrote it only had a mild inkling of what it was as well; it seems to me to be an overly complex mechanism that the author devised in a kind of "on the spot" way.

(ETA yes, and okay, so I was totally that commenter you quoted! :D)