I will say this as someone who has been a fan of the Spirit Cats since their inception, way back in 2003. The goal of the Spirit Cats was always, always to preserve the Spirit of the Nova Cat, to find a safe haven where their people/Clan could ride out the storm Kev Rosse saw forthcoming. It was never to split off into a new separate identity and let their parent Clan wither on the vine.
It may not have been their goal to split off into a new separate identity, but that's what's happened. That's just the facts. And the Spirit Cats can preserve the Spirit of the Nova Cat without
becoming Clan Nova Cat, which they in fact have done. They're not just a splinter faction anymore, they're a
successor faction.
Now if the Spirit Cats decide en masse that they have evolved into something different, and new, and the name Nova Cat no longer fits, that's one thing. But all the textual evidence that exist indicates that they still see themselves as Nova Cats, that they are a part of Clan Nova Cat.
They can feel that way, but it doesn't mean anything beyond their feelings. There is no Clan Nova Cat anymore. They're gone. I don't know how much clearer TPTB need to make that. And the fact of the matter is that they
have evolved into something different, and while they obviously have a strong connection to their cultural heritage, the faction is called the Spirit Cats. Names matter. How they identify in the setting matters. And that is as the Spirit Cats.
But I think it's far more earned if the Spirit Cats declare themselves Clan Nova Cat reborn than the Fidelis going back to being Smoke Jaguars for a few reasons. One, the Spirit Cats never stopped being Clan in culture. The Fidelis as presented all the way up to Rock of the Republic had given up Clan culture and attitudes. In fact, they seemed to hate with a vengeance other Clans.
I don't disagree that they kept living their culture when the Fidelis didn't, but this doesn't mean they've "earned" anything. When I say that the Fidelis earned it, I mean that they earned it with the other Clans, who welcomed them back (provisionally). This sort of thing has always mattered to the Clans as a whole, to be considered a part of something bigger than just themselves. They might fight against and even hate each other, but the Clans are also bound to each other. If they weren't, being the ilClan would have no meaning. Being Abjured would have no meaning. But these things do have meaning to them, as we've seen time and time again. It's part of what makes them the Clans, and not some greedy Successor State. I'd even argue that the Cats are especially keen on this aspect, because they have yet to stand on their own since their Abjurement; they continue to glom onto other faction, be it the Combine, the Republic or now the FWL.
Then out of nowhere it's revealed they've secretly been hoping to become a Clan again, and betray the people who gave them refuge when everyone else wanted them annihilated. Even IKEO calls out how self-serving the betrayal is.
But it wasn't out of nowhere. The epilogue of Surrender Your Dreams, which is literally where the Fidelis debuted as a faction, established this as their intended endgame from the very beginning. BLP, who wrote both of these pieces of fiction, was following through on his own plot thread, so this is 100% consistent.
And why does it matter that their actions were self-serving?
Every faction in BattleTech is self-serving, LOL.
Now to be clear, I'm not saying that the Spirit Cats don't have a case to rebrand themselves if they so chose. Of course they do, that's undeniable. But I also stand by my assessment that having a second dead Clan decide to resurrect themselves in such a short span of time would cheapen the impact (because they'll always draw comparisons to the Fidelis and seem like, no pun intended, copycats) and come off as empty fanservice, and that there's more value in the Spirit Cats continuing on the divergent path that they've forged for themselves. It's in their very name: they're keeping the Spirit of the Nova Cats alive. They don't need to
be the Nova Cats to carry that torch forward.