Have they yet? If not, let's go through the 6 major political idologies in the game and how they apply to Penumbra as how I understand them at the moment

Militarist or Pacifist?

Militarist is more direct and confrontational than Pacificist and they are a spy faction, so not Militarist. Spying isn't really a Pacifist thing to do either, so not Pacificist

Scientific or Religious?

Could be Scientific because they spy which is basically studying but from the shadows, but then we will have 3 factions with Science ideology so not Scientific. Could be Religious as they follow a musical way of life, but I don't know if it is just their culture or if they are worshipping something greater that is musical in nature and they are spying others to add to this music.

Ecologist or Industrialist?

Ecologist involves leaving the environment as it is, so they could be Ecologist as they spy the universe and leave things as is. Industrialist involves extracting from the environment and making things, so it is unlikely that they are Industrialist as making huge industrial buildings would leave evidence of their resource extraction and manufacturing byproducts.

What are your thoughts?

I watched the Automaton's intro scene and read their lore. They don't look like an interesting enough addition to the Endless Space 2 as a major faction. For a minor faction, sure. The Automatons seem dull compared to another robotic race, the Riftborn, who comes from another dimension and sees biological life as a disgusting piece of chaos unlike they have ever seen before. It gives you the choice to either become more familiar with our "strange" world or to make our dimension their new Coroz. Both of which you can choose either in the main questline. Also, the Riftborn has reverse terraforming as they see sterile worlds as wonderful places to live and work in.

Instead, I'd like to see the lava-loving Kapaku from Endless Legend as an Ecologist/Religious race. We usually think of Ecology as growing green plants, but to the Kapaku Ecology is about volcano-forming the planet. In their eyes lava is "green", "fertile", and gives them crystals to eat. In their intro cutscene, you can see that their lava planet has been terraformed by an advanced alien species into a greener planet, killing and driving off the Kapaku in the process. It's a pretty cool reversal on the usual trope. It is the "native population's environment destroyed by invaders" idea, except instead of the invaders cutting down trees, they instead planted them. In regards to religiousness, they use shamans who are in tune with the earthen energies of the planet, giving them a spiritual and religious vibe. If the Kapaku's main ideology is Ecologist, then we give them the trait where Religious events support Ecologist events. We got reverse terraforming with the Riftborn so it would be great to have reverse Ecology with the Kapaku.