The developers of Fallout New Vegas wanted to introduce another faction in The Outer Worlds 2 that the player could join. This is the Protectorate. There are hints within the game that the team was planning a full-fledged faction, but the process stalled: there wasn't enough time to complete the reputation system and the task associated with the organization.
Brandon Adler from Obsidian noted that integrating the Protectorate into the gameplay remains in the studio's plans. Perhaps they will return to the topic in additional content for The Outer Worlds 2.
The game director also abandoned the disguise mechanic. Initially, the developers wanted to give the opportunity to pretend to be a member of the Protectorate and deceive NPCs. The system worked in the alpha version, but later the team decided that the idea didn't manifest itself well enough in the game and completely excluded it from the release build.