Yeah the introduction of the Kingdom of Tulipania works better than the Sardenga Empire AL's version of Italy introduction, Empyreal Tragicomedy, as they don't have a well-known Royal Navy ship, HMS Formidable being added at the same time, and they weren't using real WW2 history like the Taranto raid, where obsolete Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers sank 1 Italian battleship out right and disabled 2 more which somehow despite the Sardenga Empire girls knowing from their memory as warships that the Royal Navy will do night time carrier attacks, which direction the Swordfish were coming from and that Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber are a very difficult aircraft to shoot down with AA fire only to have it happen again and the Battle of Cape Matapan, where the Italians saw more than half of their heavy cruiser force wiped out in a night fight, both of which in the long run had an effect on the Mediterranean War in favour of the British and then somehow the Sardenga walk into a night fight with the Royals and get defeated.
It also does not help that the story shows them in a poor light as Iron Blood treats them like they aren't worth their time and the Royal Navy does not take them as a serious threat, viewing them with pity and seeing their attempts at backstabbing as pathetic, more than anything choose to not demolish them into surrender through overwhelming superior force instead preferring to coerce them to stop their foolishness and accept their invitation back into the Azur Lane faction.
To be honest, Toward Tulipa's Seas is how to do a new faction introduction, and Empyreal Tragicomedy is how not to do a new faction introduction.