Man I marathoned UC gundam last summer and I'm convinced Zeon is the real hero of the story
For one the Federation is scum. The whole reason for the war is because they wanted to rein in the colonies and control their resources. Their people have no conviction nor belief in why they're fighting. Thats why when they won the 1year war they immediately turned into military dictators worse than Zeon in Zeta gundam.
Anaheim electronics controls the Fed from the shadows to profiteer off the war and through all these Gundam series, NOBODY has checked them.
And worst of all they LOVE chucking children in mobile suits and letting them be fodder on the front lines. In the hopes 1/100000 develops into a sociopath space psychic.
On the other hand Zeon is fighting for independence. And they believe in this shyt.
You don't see passion like that in the Federation.
They got grown men fighting their war and them nikkas will volunteer for any and every experimental tech if it can give them an edge. They invented mobile suits.
Char would have led us to a golden age. Instead look at the state of the universe in Victory Gundam and Gundam X.
maybe if it was founded by char. but the incompetent zabis were the face of zeon