With F4 being my first game, I knew nothing about the franchise during my first playthrough. After just messing around for so long, I eventually got around to siding with the BoS thinking they were the good guys. I didn't like the Minutemen so I never bother doing anything for them so I never discovered they had a quest line. I hate the railroad, period. And the Institute seemed bad I guess, I just wanted to see a giant explosion though.

If there was an interview, the BoS would've been like: "Hey you, we need people to fight for us", I'm like "Can I blow shit up?", they're like "That's like all we do here man, welcome aboard!"

The BoS made me feel welcome, gave me cool lasers and armor, and always provided a huge spectacle no matter what they did(E.g. The Prydwen, Vertibird fleet, armored patrols, Liberty Prime). Also U.S. military remnant.

I think in-universe that is actually a major appeal of the BoS.

You come from some little, barely-surviving community beset by raiders and monsters. You probably don't have a lot of resources to rely on, maybe only a few weapons to defend yourselves with. And then you meet a group that offers you a place to live, a family to be a part of, the training, armor, and weaponry to take back civilization for humanity. Most wastelanders would have no idea about the BoS's wider problems or even care if they did. Yeah, no wonder that the chapters who are actually open to outside recruitment are the ones doing good.

I sided with the institute

I only sided with the institute to be with my little shaun...only he ain't so little anymore

Same here

I didn't care about Shaun. He's not an innocent little baby anymore, he's the leader of a faction whose goal is to make sure the population on the surface dies off so that they alone can decide what's best for humanity. I didn't want to sacrifice the future of the Commonwealth out of nepotism.

I meant to side with the BOS… then I meant Maxson. Then Maxson told me to murder my friend simply cuz he was “icky” so I went to the MM

Not what happens, but...

Danse is believed to be a synth under Institute control.

You can ask Maxson if Danse could be innocent. Maxson doesn’t care. Maxson wants his best officer dead simply cuz synths are icky. He doesn’t care if Danse is a spy or not. He is a synth and thus must be murdered