Who Rules Kadara Port

I really don't know why people are even debating this. Sloane is a mob boss. She does not think beyond being a mob boss. She does not even see what's right before her eyes. Which is Reyes using her own people to beat up Kaetus and completely isolating her so that she has to turn to the Pathfinder, whom she loathes. And even then she doesn't connect the dots. I like her as a "strong female character" (and her voice actress), but she completely lacks leadership qualities beyond warfare, or any kind of diplomatic subtlety.

Reyes knows this ("Sloane will bring war to Heleus"). He is the complete opposite: forward-thinking, tactical, determined, ruthless (has to be, it's a crime hub after all), recognizes the necessity for peace (with Initiative and Angara) because there is just not enough manpower to burn, recognizes the necessity of trade with an outpost in order to build an economy, recognizes the necessity for healthcare (see donations to the clinic)...it is just PLAIN OBVIOUS who is the better leader. Yeah, he uses Ryder. Not really for things you couldn't morally cope with though.

The only problem i see is that he strikes me as kinda autocratic, judging by his sneer when he talks about Sloane being "a woman of the people" and the fact that Crux says he runs the Collective basically on his own (which is a feat by itself). I think he is a guy who thinks he knows best and wouldn't delegate power (especially not to "the people"). But tbh he knows what he's doing, so I'm fine with that so far. Call him Machiavelli at worst, but hands down he's still 10x better for Kadara than Sloane.

And the argument that Sloane is easier controllable cause dumber I don't buy. She is a lose cannon and makes it plain known she doesn't want to cooperate. Maybe you could manipulate her to do what you want since she has noone else to turn to, but that would make you like Reyes.

(And this is all even disregarding the fact that Reyes is also hot a.f. and I freely admit that I absolutely adore him, hah. )

Her kingpinning with the oblivion drug alone proves that wrong.

My inner Aeducan admires how he outplayed her. Maybe someone will outplay Reyes down the line. I don't care as long as I have my outpost.

The fact that Reyes provides for the angaran resistance is good enough for me (he is a contact of Efvra's after all). I don't care that Reyes is a liar and a sneak. In his brief time with the Pathfinder, he proved more useful than the mob boss ever was. Even Aria was more helpful than her, and Aria practically has IDGAF tattooed on her forehead. 

Being in good terms with the Angaran resistance is the biggest argument for Reyes, but it's not enough for me. It doesn't make up for the fact that I'm not having the safety of one of our very few settlements in the hands of a guy I know nothing about other than the fact he's a sneaky liar.

Reyes. Not because I trust him more than Sloane, I definitely don't, but that little drug operation she and Kaetus had going pretty much sealed the deal.

A couple of side-quests mention that but since I can not name them now (will, when I get there again) - please, disregard that false accusation of a model citizen Sloan is!

Sloan.

My first instinct on meeting Reyes was to put a bullet in his head before he finished his first sentence. I know a snake when I see one.

They're both villains, of course, but what I appreciate about the story is how many different angles the player character can come from in who seems the least harmful. For most of my Ryders, having heard Sloane threaten us with a war if we try to settle on what she sees as her planet was enough to convince them she was too dangerous to let her continue her reign of terror.

Out of my seven versions of Ryder, the only two I ended up deciding would be able to handle letting Sloane live are my most amoral, Lucien--who simply didn't like Reyes and hates being tricked, and my most morally inflexible, Tristan--who has a healthy sense of Sloane's depravity but can't bring himself to use murder as a means of dealing with it.

The only thing they have in common is that they both put their own priorities (pride and honor) over the welfare of Kadara. But one of them did so with a selfish mindset and the other with a lawful one.

The most important part of any decision here, obviously.  

I think the fact that he is a romance option will skew the results, since it's required if you want to continue with the romance.

I picked Reyes (I didn't romance him, though). I can't point to any concrete reason; he just seemed more decent to me during the whole thing. However, I did like that Scott could express suspicion and disappointment at being used, while still picking him and calling him a friend. It's a wary friendship for me, but I'm willing to give him a chance.

I can.  Same thing happened to Knight.  In fact, the only reason I have tried to save her is for the sake of her son.  Besides, my Ryder is pretty handy with a sniper rifle himself.  Not much difference that I can see, particularly when the shot to the head is the beginning of the fight against some Outcasts, Collective or Roekaar.