Tell that to the people who actually had to clean up the trouble and drama it caused... like me. Personally, I don't think the outbursts were worth it, and I have no reason to believe reintroducing Factions would play out differently now than in the past.
Besides, the point of the gamemode refocusing was to refocus on our primary gamemodes, not invent new ones to further distract us.
I believe the reason you had such an issue with the aftershock is because you didn't really enforce the rules to their full potential and often let it slide. The only thing that destroyed factions was Tomahawk's forehead thing, I feel like if we reintroduced factions with a harsher penalty system in addition to adding some chat filters and other helpful plugins. Factions could be something even more than it was last time, and bring not only PVP personnel, but a whole new group of people that enjoy making powerful factions to rule the land. In addition this influx of people would add more people to donate towards the server with the /kit command.
Lastly, you have to remember Factions rivaled Survival Games more than any other game mode and occasionally surpassed the amount of people playing Survival Games. Look at how the community has grown and changed throughout the almost 2 years it has been gone.
I say let us give factions another chance, and let the community develop new friendships and competitive rivalries! #BringBackFactions