In theory a Tier 4 faction winds up being on par more with a Tier 3 faction because of the extra clocks, which means they need to be launching more scores to clear stress, but they're also the more politically interesting factions to play and what is Blades anyway without the concept of "fictional positioning" anyway? T4 factions will have the position to pull off more daring operations and more convoluted schemes.
I also needed some way to keep whichever smart-aleck playing the Imperial Military from rolling over everyone for no good reason . :P