Well, more specifically with the endings, so spoilers ahead I guess.

I’ve completed the game with both the Institute and the Railroad, since both of those are pretty close together.  The Institute is an interesting organizations, very technocratic.  There’s a severe lack of empathy for anything not within field of view but they are also the only faction playing the long game.  They live in the shadows and are appropriately called boogeymen in the game.  It takes a very long time before you see an actual member, rather than just a synth.

The Railroad is a weird one.  One part underground railroad, one part freedom fighters… but against an oppressor no one understands.  While they want to stop the Institute, they also want to free all the synths.  And this is the really messed up part.

The Institute treats synths as objects, though they do have borderline sentience.  The Railroad thinks all synths should be free, though mostly for the gen3 versions, who look just like humans.  But the methods to get there are just…stupid.

Somehow, the Railroad thinks that by destroying the Institute that will free all the synths.  But the Institute continues to make synths.  So the Railroad is in effect preventing any future synths from being created.  Kind of a weird moral jumble.  But they talk about it.

There’s the 2nd to last mission for the Railroad and it’s to take out the Brotherhood of Steel.  Not once in any quest do they talk about the BoS, never do you cross paths.  But all of a sudden, you need to take them out.  And ALL of them.  I didn’t get that.

While I didn’t necessarily agree with the Institute all the way through as many of their justifications were flawed, at least they were consistent.  Find the smartest people in the commonwealth, offer them a padded and secured job to help humanity.  Hide as much as possible.  The Railroad was just “free the synths, kill everyone else”.

Time to load an earlier save and try the BoS path.  I’m not much of a fan of them in this game compared to others.  Maybe there’s some redemption to be found.