Many of the default factions are like that, i.e. more than 8 traits, over point limits, etc., and were in Endless Legend and the original Endless Space as well.  I vaguely remember reading a post explaining in detail why this was a while back, but I know Amplitude tries to give each race two starting technologies, as well as a handful of traits that fit their theme, which sometimes will put them over the normal limits.  That may seem broken/unbalanced, but please believe me when I say that you can easily create custom factions in all these games that are vastly superior to the base ones, even without editing any game files or using mods.  For example, I felt the same way about the default UC, and this is the custom faction I've come up with so far:

Gameplay Affinity:  In the Shadows
Visual Affinity:  Umbral Choir

Home Planet:  Arid
Government:  Democracy or Republic

Politics:  Ecologists, Biologists, Sociologists
Bonuses:  Meritocratic Cosmopolites, Efficient Farmers, Pacified Collection or Peer-Reviewed Collection

Traits:  Ace Senators, Biophobic, Crowded Planets II, Exploited Sleepers, Ghosts, Organic Network, Strange But Bad, Twitch Infiltrators

Population:  60/60
Traits:  100/100
Count:  8/8

At first glance some of this might not seem to make much sense, such as an Arid home planet, but the UC ignore the home planet option entirely and use thier own super special shiny floating ring things, so going with the cheapest option here makes sense.  Also, Strange But Bad might seem like it could really hinder your start, however I've found that most times it actually ends up helping me, because in addition to giving 10 more points to play with it guarantees there is an Anomaly in my starting system, thereby letting me get bonus FIDSI via the Ecologist's Green Fertility Bill.  UC is limited to only a single system that they can actually colonize but all of those planets are Sterile, so Efficient Farmers gives extra Food per population, while Biophobic gives a large Approval bonus per population and an extra population slot on each of your five planets.  Combined with Crowded Planets II and all five of your planets *start* with a population cap of 7, and that can be increased to a whopping 12 via research and system development.  Exploited Sleepers, Ghosts, Organic Network and Twitch Infiltrators are all from the default UC, and Ace Senators is just a personal preference of mine because of how much Influence it saves you.

Give this setup a try and I'm sure you'll have more resources and population than you know what to do with.  Good luck!

EDIT:  Strange But Bad is no longer compatible with In the Shadows, so instead I'd recommend Vexed I, because you get so much Approval from Biophobic that -10 does literally nothing to you.