I only use Next for the non-diplomacy/strategy features.
The Sector is canonically stuck in a cold war where all of the factions are keeping their true strength in check and only running subversive operations/proxy engagements with each other, and it should stay that way unless something changes on the sector-political scale (such as the player making a new colony faction and messing the scale of balance of the sector).

Changes in diplomacy/war should only occur when there are developments in the story, and planets in the millions of inhabitants shouldn't be able to be conquered using just 2,000 marines.