You sort of have a point there, but weren't those Astroist realms all theocracies, or the majority of them. They fought wars only against realms with non-believers pretty much. If that's the case, we're discussing semantics here and nothing more.
Actually the realms they fought against frequently had Astroists in them. Maybe not the majority but there were some notable Astroists in secular realms and they weren't chastised for being in a realm at war with a theocracy.
The problem was the federation, not the religion. Turin even introduced a treaties for how theocracies should go to war. I think it would be pretty sweet if people adopted it (or at least pretended to). I think the spiffiest part is an honor code for champion warfare.
