Just a few counterpoints to some of the factions.
Railroad: "Anti-slavery" is fine and dandy but they don't care about the state of the commonwealth and it's humans at all. They rather live in the shadows and liberate machines than make the lives of their fellow humans better. I also remember very clearly playing a quest where I have to get a "liberated" Synth back. That Synth ended up being a brutal, murderous Raider leader all thanks to the efforts of the Railroad. The blood of many innocent people are on their hands just because of their conviction that machines deserve the same rights as humans. They scramble them and then set them set free irregardless of the consequences.
Brotherhood: Yes, they are a military force with a strict set of beliefs. They are also the faction that is the best equipped for protecting the people of the commonwealth. They aren't just some random settlers with home-made rifles. They are experienced soliders equipped with hight-tech armor and weaponry. They hate things they call "abominations" but that belief didn't come out of nowhere. Science gone wrong is the exact reason the world died in nuclear fire. They steal technology because world has already seen what technology in the wrong hands is capable of doing. Elder Maxson has indeed a more traditional approach when it comes to leading the Brotherhood but that doesn't mean it has to be always that way. Elder Lyons from Fallout 3 has proven that the Brotherhood is more than capable of helping the citizens of the wasteland and Elder Maxson did grow up there and saw it with his own eyes.
Institute: Yes, they have done a lot of very shady things. There is no argument to be had there. They are by far the most advanced faction/society in the commonwealth if not even on the world though. Their world is an utopia. With their expertise the commonwealth could be rebuild to a new glory. Everyone at the Institute is healthy and fine thanks to their advancements in the fields of medicine and nutrition and they could share that with the rest of the commonwealth. As an experiment at Warwick Farm has shown the Institute is working on a modified type of plant that survives better in the harsh environment of the wasteland and produces way more crop and it's in fact successful. The people at the Institute may prefer the life in seclusion but there is no reason they would do something like this if they wouldn't be at least interested in what is going on above.
The Institute at it's core are also scientists and not politicians or soldiers or whatever. Things like conquering or power are not their main goal. If it would be the commonwealth would have fallen under their total control long ago since nothing in the commonwealth could have stood to their level of technology and an army of synths. Advancements in the fields of science is their main goal and has always been. That some methods used to accomplish that ruffle some feathers is unfortunate but it's not their main intention.
The Synths are obviously the biggest point of discussion when it comes to them and their viewpoint is kinda right. The Institute made them. They are machines. Pure and simple. Generation 3 Synths may look and maybe even act like homo sapiens but they are in fact not and nothing will ever change that.