I'm guessing from the material presented in CT AM 3 Vargr and CTAM 4 Zhodani

I dug the latter out as well as Alien Realms, but not the Vargr book so thanks for the tip.

that there is a good chance that some of the non-aligned systems in District 268 have encountered both Vargr and Zhodani earlier than with the Third Imperium.

That would be my guess too.

As another guess some of the non-aligned worlds closest to the Zhodani probably don't care what the Third Imperium has to say about the Zhodani if they can trade with them. Others will probably welcome the Zhodani and ask for their help.

That's kind of what I was going to assume, but perhaps not make it immediately obvious what world has what viewpoint before a Zho trade ship jumps in. I'd guess the situation would be in a relative state of flux so their equivalent of library data might not be quite accurate.

Some worlds will follow the Third Imperium's lead and the most advanced and/or richest probably have limited access to psi helmets.

Good thought. Tie availability to TL (and maybe law level).

Other than that the field is wide open.

Great! I certainly don't mind that, just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something 'everyone knows'!