I have taken the stance that when all is said and done, the Institute is beyond redemption. It's rationalization of "for the greater Good" actually translates to "for the Institute's greater good". As such, when I go to the Institute, coming in guns blazing would NOT be the best strategy. The fact Father has unilaterally decided to bestow VIP status makes it eminently possible to snoop throughout the Institute to gather secrets that can be used against the Institute back in the Commonwealth. The kind of snooping which I did, thoroughly. Things like the fact that the Diamond City mayor IS a synth. The SRB's list of collaborators in the Commonwealth. Etc. Great stuff to know if one is bent on bringing down the Institute. HOWEVER, you can't use that info for anything. WHY wouldn't Piper be able to use such info to get rid of the mayor? Why wouldn't all the Commonwealth communities be able to neutralize the Institute's network of surface informants? Why can't the details of the Warwick Initiative be broadcast after returning from the Institute?

Being hostile to the Institute, why would I NOT spread those secrets far and wide?

[I should point out that I did NOT align with any faction until it became absolutely necessary to build the Signal Interceptor. And then I joined the Minutemen, who apparently don't have an obvious ambition of destroying the Institute. So doing something like smuggling a nuke into the Institute is unlikely to come up.]

I also have to wonder why I wasn't even given the opportunity to research THE question that was foremost in my mind (after "What became of Shaun?"): Who has been responsible for ordering the synth attacks on my settlements??? That's the guy that is at the top of my Hit List.

The player has

A. No means of taking down the data without The Institute knowing about it

B. Even if they did, it would just come across as the mad ravings of Piper's "crazy friend" since you have no means to actually show you got it from The Institute and didn't just make [censored] up and slap it on a holotape.

People accuse everyone and their grandmother of being secret synths/Institute spies all day every day. That's just the norm in The Commonwealth, your easily falsifiable data isn't going to change any of that any more then Myrna's ravings about everyone in DC being a synth would.

Methinks Maxon or even Des would listen to what the SS has to say. I'm sure Des would like knowing one of her biggest Casuals...Old Man Stockton....is totally compromised with all of his lieutenants being on the SRB payroll, especially after the Bunker Hill attack. And outing Roger/the Mayor to the Brotherhood would net them a Gen 3 Synth or two to dissect...or better yet, interrogate...not to mention a major propaganda coup. Look at Bunker Hill...if you tell Maxon he doesn't buy it fully unless you tell him you got it from the Institute, then he immediately scrambles a force to take advantage and places you in charge of it.

1. That's patently incorrect. Having come in via the Minutemen, Sturges has the SS plant a tap on the Institute's mainframe, which enables the SS to bring out a holotape of a data dump to give to Sturges. If that holotape is able to be brought out without the Institute knowing about it, other holotapes of data downloads could be made and taken back to the Commonwealth.

2. Because of the pervasive paranoia and rampant conspiracy theories, it becomes possible that there is NO incontrovertible evidence that cannot simply be dismissed as some conspiracy nut's fabrications. HOWEVER, there are enough paranoid people that all it takes is for one or more of them to act on the SS's revelations and subsequently prove the accusation were indeed factual. For example, if the Diamond City mayor gets assassinated and his Synth Components revealed, it contributes to the SS's veracity. If some of the people on SRB's informants get grabbed and "intensely" interrogated and they reveal some of their interactions with the Institute, again the SS's accusations seem all the more plausible.

If you do NOT want to believe, there is NOTHING that can make you believe. Conversely, for those that want to believe -- of which that are MANY -- very little is required in the way of proof. Regardless, having the ongoing witch hunt inflamed WILL prove to be a major setback for the Institute. PLUS, the SS have shown a way for outsiders to force an entry for military units to exploit. Imagine what happens when a platoon of BoS PA appears in the midst of the Institute.

The same thing we can't do for other factions. We can't report the Railroad to the Institute, we can't reveal Patriot and the synth rebels to the Institute, we can't destroy Nick and Curie in the name of the BoS. These are just some limitations and when you join a faction, they have already assumed you have a certain mindset, with the RR, you can't reveal any of these information because you're infiltrating, with the BoS, they don't assume you join or also infiltrate for information like getting Dr. Li. As for these things after the endings, they don't do much for after the ending. The reasons why you can't expose the merchants after the ending are because it's pointless since the Institute is gone and they're only doing it for caps, you also kill off the merchants which mean you can no longer trade, causing inconvenience. The same thing for Warwick, they are basically just a normal family after the Institute is destroyed, the synth has a normal everyday life, you, as the Railroad, why would you want to destroy them? You can't do it during the Institute run because you're trying to infiltrate the Institute, you can't do it after the Institute is destroyed, because there is no reasons to reveal them.

The MM is basically the failsafe faction just so you can reach the ending if you screw up everything else. That is why it's so bare boned compared to other factions.

The BoS and RR know you went into the Institute. They'd have no reason not to believe it if you told them everything you discovered.

Your description has a lot of holes in it. If the SS does NOT belong to any of the factions you mention, where's the constraint? Even after arriving in the Institute, you are given the freedom to come and go even if you chose to NOT join the Institute. Though I didn't join the RR and BoS, I am still on good enough terms with them to pass on useful info. And if I have entered, gathered info, and returned to the Commonwealth, the Institute still exists, and so there is still very much a reason to disrupt its operations. Not ALL of the traveling traders are Institute informants. And even if they get torn to shreds by Institute-haters, as is human nature, others would step up to fill the void. There are also literally hundreds of trading posts set up in the settlements that can create marketplaces for people to come and do their shopping, or for the remaining caravans to create a broader, more profitable circuit. As for Warwick, I have no doubt that somewhere there is a functional X-ray machine. (Why hasn't Covenant tried that approach I wonder.) Reveal Robert Warwick's Synth Component and there goes the Warwick Initiative.

From what I understand of the parameters of synth production, ALL synths, no matter how lifelike, are sterile. Releasing hordes of Gen-3 Stepford Spouses into the Commonwealth would be one way for the Institute to depopulate the Commonwealth that much sooner. (Loving, caring relationships, but NO progeny offspring for the next generation.) Robert Warwick could very well be the spearhead of just such a program. June and the kids are happier because for whatever reason, Robert inexplicably became nice. But unfortunately for June, she will never again have children.)