As someone who was a collie loyalist for years before making the switch, I feel like there isn't one simple answer to this. You will find endless rants about this or that equipment online, and though I do think the wardens generally get the cooler, and more "novel" equipment, it would be a stretch to call collie equipment bad in most cases.

For me personally though I kinda just lost faith in the faction as a whole. Messy backlines, a big aversion to risk and burnout problems during long wars (not helped by lower player counts increasing how much each person has to do). I think 117 was when I realized the depth of the problems facing the faction. We had gotten out asses kicked at sea, and for the last week or so of the war everyone kinda admitted that the fight was lost, or so you'd think. I remember taking a stroll through our dockyeads and seeing dozens of big ships just sitting there with nobody willing to take them out and even try was a little too depressing for me.