I started out my Minecraft life on a factions server. There was one large faction who actively tried to harvest up all new players, and a few smaller factions made by players who managed to log on when the other faction was asleep
Much tom foolery and backstabbing, our tiny 6 or 8 player factions was at war with the 120 player faction. I think we were winning
The kind of community Factions create is just generally a bit hostile. I had considered making a pvp oriented survival server in the past, but I think to do it right is a tricky. As you've seen, there are plenty of okay factions servers, but very few good ones. I think it would need plenty of players, a way to balance group numbers and encourage players to come together to pvp rather than only sieging each other's castles once in a while.
I don't think I am yet ready to attempt a pvp survival server like that. The Zedwork community is currently built around collaboration, rather than a competitive-spirit. However, maybe one day
For now I would rather create event-based games, like running UHC once a month and hopefully other survival games, as a break from our usual play.