I had wondered if the Epopt himself was the Baron.
That's a very interesting idea and one that would make Pysadi "pop" for your players.
Consider this: Why can the Mother Church blithely imprison off-world visitors solely due to the antics of some anolas? Because the Epopt of the Mother Church also happens to be an Imperial Baron!
IMTU and following the lead of
Pocket Empires, previously settled worlds were often coaxed/bribed into joining the new Imperium by granting Imperial titles to members of the local power structure. The Imperium isn't as much an association of individual citizens as it is an association of planetary governments.
The maps on
TTA's page 15 show that Pysadi wasn't settled prior to the Imperium arriving in the region. The system is colonized sometime between 300 and 400 from Deneb and the text talks about how the subsector still has more ties to Deneb than Regina or even Rhylanor. While there was likely no local political elites already on Pysadi requiring Imperial titles as bribes, might there have been a group in Deneb needing a lure to emigrate?
Imagine an Imperial committee in Deneb somewhere tasked with driving the settlement of the Aramis subsector. They've got piles of IISS reports detailing the various systems in question and the system that will become Pysadi comes up for discussion. The planet is on the small side, there are no notable mineral deposits, no planetoid belt, and an atmospheric taint. The world does have good agricultural potential, however, and it's close to the future markets of the Aramis Trace.
While it's worth settling, it's also not worth making a great effort to do so. Is there any way to get the job done on the cheap?
It turns out that a certain world in Pretoria hosts a certain religious sect. It's one of thousands across the Imperium which follow some mixture of the ancient Terran philosophy of Luddism and the Gaia hypothesis. The sect isn't particularly troublesome but it could become a brake on the development of it's home world. Might it be encouraged to emigrate?
And might part of that encouragement be an Imperial title for the sect's leader?
The title isn't presented as a bribe, mind you. Imperial agents don't sidle up to the Epopt and whisper
"Convince your people to move and we'll make you a baron..."
Instead, the title is presented as a type of insurance.
"Your people and their descendants will have their own world to live as they see fit. You will be made a baron so you and your descendants may speak in the councils of the Imperium on their behalf..."