Yes spamming 5 seems to be a great way to get a mobile strike force and boost activations).
Indeed for me the independant section is a choice where currently the Harriddan is winning, but when it gets nerfed the 2 Lictors, 4 genestealer option will take over (maybe swap a set of stealers for mines, in both cases have 100 points left over for broodlords/2 more lictors/more stealers as experience would no doubt show what was best).
Certainly I think anyone who doesn't maximise activations from the independent section is doing themselves a dis-service.

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'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
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I thought the Hierophant didn't do a great deal, was it just unlucky to get killed off so easily? Could it use it's armour bumped back up to 4+RA (Matches the Hierodule's and Hydraphant) with maybe a points increase to 300pts.

The Harridan still looks like a Jekyll and Hyde beast. Leave it alone and it causes havoc but catch and it dies quite easily. Maybe a bump to 200pts.

At 200 you can still get 5

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'Abolish red trousers?! Never! Red trousers are France!' – Eugene Etienne, War Minister, 1913
"Gentlemen, we may not make history tomorrow, but we shall certainly change the geography."
General Plumer, 191x

The next price point would be 225pts and thats too much. The best cap on Harridans is good other Independent choices. The one that used to stand out was the Hierophant but that seems to get mauled every time it appears now. Lictors and Genestealers don't seem to get used that often but for the points the Lictors occupy a unique niche and the Stealers really do provide good stats for the points but a large bullseye for the opponent. Tunneler swarms aren't used because no one can spare the raveners from bodyguard duty.

Because figures are lacking?  This is a problem in playtesting the lists.

I think arkturas means that Raveners are being assigned to Synapse Swarms instead of as tunnelers since the former is seen as a more important role for them.

"Lacking figures" should never be an issue in playtesting since you can, and should, proxy anything when testing, just to try out alternate builds.

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If you look at the pictures for the Batrep you can see Lictors proxying as Raveners. I've got 17 stands made with Tyranid Warrior, Lictor and Hormagaunt top halves and greenstuff tails. Looks like a bit of a hatchet job though, too small to work reliably for me.

The tunneller swarm adds something different to the list but Independent is very competitive for points and 200+ points is quite a chunk when the Raveners are available and essential as common broods to compliment Warriors.