I'm genuinely surprised there are no Batarians with the Initiative

This should've been a gang of outlaws IMO. You don't hear about the initiative in the OT and you get the impression that it spread the word via smaller propaganda things on the extranet, kinda like Sanctuary in ME3 and we know that the reason why this thing exists to begin with is actually

And I get that we're together with the Council races becuase that works but considering how rogue and suspect this all is and we BROUGHT THE KROGAN, I'm really surprised the Batarians did not join.

Batarians are wiped out in ME3. There's a smaller group who knows about the Reapers I think and they're all outcasts in a galactic society that does not want them as it is expanding back in the Milky Way. I'm really torn that they didn't see this as an opportunity for the Batarians to get an Ark. They're the single most interesting yet unexplored race in the trilogy in my opinion and I think people loved the Batarian MP character too.

But no, instead we get a bunch of normal people all not being able to explain why they went to Andromeda without making you go