A more robust Custom faction creation system

So I can't be the only one who's created a custom faction.  I also can't be the only one who's picked a certain visual affinity and gameplay affinity and frowned at some of the things that are tied to each.  It was the case in Endless Legend (which I also enjoy) and is very much the case in Endless Space 2.

A recent example was my discovery that the reverse colonization technology possessed by the riftborn is actually tied to the "continuum sculptor" affinity, but the buidable population was tied to the Riftborn visual affinity specifically.  This was...vexing, to say the least.

I also made a custom faction using Horatio's visuals and the Emperor's Will...and for some reason could not use the "genetic recoding" improvement even after researching the tech.  Bug or no, it's frustrating.

My first proposal here is one of clarity: We need clear definitions of what is and isn't tied to each affinity --RIGHT THERE ON THE CUSTOM FACTION SCREEN.--  Having to make the faction, save the faction, start the game, build all the way up to the tech involved and then discover it doesn't work for an undescribed reason is, frankly, not okay.  Having to deduce, look up on the web, or waste hours finding out the hard way what each trait actually does is something we should be past by now.  Here's a straightforward idea: give us a button to preview the tech circle from the creation screen, with any modified techs clearly highlighted by colored pulses.  Simple, elegant, distinctive and informative.

Second, divorce the unique techs and/or features from the ship hulls.  Let us try out a Craver fleet with Riftborn quests and gene splicing, or an Imperial fleet with Metafolding and Sophon techs.  Perhaps this allows for some broken combos, but that segues nicely into my next proposal.

Re-evaluate the cost of traits.  It's time.  There's no way I'm the first person to point out that the standard races not only don't have the same overall trait totals, but often are under or OVER their own alloted totals when loaded up in the creator!  There are only three possibilities:

A: There are traits which aren't valued accurately to their worth.

B: The races themselves aren't balanced accurately.

C: Both of the above.

I may not have specific answers as to which is the case and precisely where the problem lies, but I wager that my above proposal of splitting the traits and ships may help us isolate the culprit through more focused playtesting.