>>96720917
>Isn't that just what Tau was supposed to be?
Not really, but a common misconception. They were 'supposed' to just be a new alien race. The concept guys came up with a few pitches and Tau as a mix of high tech nato combined arms and anime inspired mecha were the pitch they went with, but kroot were the runner up that they liked enough to write in lore to justify a couple of units, and from that established lore and a design space where other auxiliaries could be added, though vespid were the only other actual manifestation of that. Point being the coalition of minor xenos was very much a secondary consequence of the designers wanting to do something with the kroot idea.