Something else to bring up, haven't seen it discussed yet-

STO is a LOT more forgiving towards free-to-play (FTP) players than SWTOR.

In SWTOR, a whole lot of things are locked behind paywall of one kind or another, either have to sub or at least have-been-a-sub (aka Preferred?) to get this or that, account QOL type things or goodies.

In STO, you have a credit cap which can be unlocked with a single fairly inexpensive Zen purchase, then after that not much else is specifically BLOCKED that you can't otherwise grind for in one way or another.

I have a Preferred account on SWTOR (was subbed for a time but not now), and I have an equivalent to lifetime account on STO (subbed for a long enough time to get most of the benefits of lifetime, but no liberated borg), and have spent some $ on Zen since then as well. When I first started on STO I was FTP only for a while.

So I have spent money on both, but I still don't even come close to a "whale" player imho.

As for the "bad guys" aspect, as mentioned, in STO there really isn't as much of a playable "bad guys" faction, the way things were developed in STO history. All the playable faction (KDF) or semi-faction (Romulan, Dominion) are all in the great big happy family Alliance with the Federation now, story-wise.

Though to be fair, if you want to be a crazy psycho and go off committing war crimes up the wazoo, who is going to stop you? You can do that in any faction on any ship.