Hey Last I heard, the meta game was still under discussion, so I realise that I won't get very solid answers, but... I was day dreaming about the impact of colonies imploding into madness on the center of the empire, and it occurred to me that over time you'd expect the empire itself to start going mad and fragmenting into cults. This would most likely need to be a togglable option at world gen, but it would be an excellent counter to the player's linked colonies becoming ever more powerful for cult groups in failed colonies to start actively expanding and conquering. Initially you'd have the empire's armies at your back, but eventually you'd effectively be an isolated rag tag batch of colonies clinging together surrounded by the crazy remains of the empire. With the inclusion of some fairly late game options to reverse madness you could also avoid the living in a world without hope atmosphere that I personally hate. So yeah this is pretty much me just ranting now, but maybe I'll mod it.
I think this bit from Dbaumgart might answer it For which there was some actual reason for in the world when i queried on that (no answers yet) so i don't think what you suggest would work. Since it would be a bit counter to what is (for the moment, granted) established. Never mind that cults are never the most stable military force if the Empire didn't sort it out, i'm sure some other nation would deal with it and then nab everything else. But that's not to say there couldn't be some overall things going on, perhaps dependant on what you do in your colonies and how you do it.
