I didn't exactly buy ARAA, I got lucky and was sent a pre-purchase copy of the game when I bought it (almost a year after release) and the code still worked. But I'm glad I did because I appreciate having the choice, even when I keep a character in their race's alliance I like that it's my decision.

My first character was a khajiit templar in the Daggerfall Covenant. She's the latest version of a character I play in all TES games (I've never decided if they're related or just very similar people) and for various reasons (not related to the Skyrim storyline) she doesn't trust the Aldmari Dominion so she left home when they moved in, wandered north and west and was just starting to establish herself as a mercenary when a job went bad, she got murdered and wound up in Coldharbour. One thing lead to another and she also ended up assisting the Dominion in the war effort, although she rarely fights for them directly.

I've also got a dunmer sorcerer who is part of the Dominion for the much simpler reason that when he was young his family moved to Summerset so he grew up there and was very influenced by Altmer perspectives on things. He genuinely believes the Dominion just needs to reach out to the other dunmer without all this war nonsense muddying the waters and they'll see sense and join willingly.

Then there's my bosmer necromancer, who is no longer welcome in Valenwood. Even he would admit he's not a good person, but it wasn't the stealing, murder or even necromancy which got him in trouble. It was his sister totally over-reacting; that "tree" was barely even a sapling, but of course the whole village took her side. So he set off for Morrowind, where he'd heard the dunmer even practiced necromancy on their own ancestors and some of them kept slaves and did all kinds of unspeakable things to them, so surely they'd be ok with whatever he did. He had the worst time of his life crossing Elsweyr (his caravan was attacked by a dragon, he was infected by bloodfiends and then some cult murdered him) so he's not keen on going back there either. Then it turned out the uppity dumner were as bad as everyone else with their "rules" and "laws", but at least he's made some good contacts and spends most of his time in the semi-lawless lands of western Cyrodiil.

Dominion zones were more pretty when questing

Sammy does not trust the high elves. So tall! So snooty! This one prefers the Covenant. Bretons are not tall, orcs are plain speaking and Redguards are honourable.

Khajiit only plays khajiit (well, except for one argonian with fluffy delusions) and this one belongs to a few guilds that pvp in DC or EP. So out of 17 khajiit, 2 are DC and one is EP.

I didn't purchase AARA but if I would do so, that would be purely due to aesthetic: I never achieved to do a char I like in any other races than Bosmer.
As I play with one toon only, that's no worries, but if I would have liked to play with more toons, I would have purchased AARA to have bosmers only, no matter the class.

I made one of each originally, before One Tamriel when you were locked into Alliance Zones. I bought Any Race Any Alliance mainly because I wanted to play Khajiit and Argonian but not be locked into their respective Factions, because I like Daggerfall Convenant the best overall.

Overall, I prefer Daggerfall Covenant because it has more of the High Fantasy aesthetic that I like, and it has, IMO, the most memorable cast of side characters, Outside of the faction leaders.

Aldmeri has Raz. Everyone else is pretty forgettable.

Ebonheart has Naryu, Raynor, and Kireth. everyone else is pretty forgettable.

Daggerfall has Captain Kaleen, Neramo, Crafty Lerisa, Jakarn, Darien Gautier, Skordo the Knife, Lady Clarisse and Stibbons, Gabriele Benele, Gloria Fausta, Verandis Ravenwatch, Gwendis, Bumnog and the Daggers, etc.

I bought the imperial edition because I simply cannot play any elder scrolls game where I'm not an imperial.
I joined the pact because my brother had the normal edition of the game and he wanted to be a nord.

If I had it my way, I'd have joined the imperials to defend cyrodiil and that would've been frickin' sick.

I like the AD zones better but also it has two races out of the three that have always been TES favorites for me: Khajiit and Bosmer.

I've never been a High Elf fan but ESO did a pretty good job of rehabilitating them after being portrayed as hideous baddies in Skyrim. Personality wise they divided them into good High Elves like the queen and her posse and bad ones like the Veiled Heritance racial supremacists.

Even aesthetically they've made high elves more palatable in ESO. Yo can make attractive ones unlike those huge headed, yellowish Skyrim monstrosities

Actually all my characters are in their race specific alliances, well, except for the Imperial, but there's no Imperial alliance, right? He's in the Covenant btw., I just thought he'll feel better in the alliance with human majority.

Anyway, I bought ARAA mainly for the costumes and horses.

I didn't "purchase" the any race, any alliance. It was part of my preorder of the game.

I used it to be a spy in the other two that are not my guild's faction while out in Cryo.

Theres a symbol other people see near your characters name. That is the color of your faction. So i pick faction based on that.
So i go:
Dc (blue) - sorcerer, warden,necro
Eb - nightblade, dragon knight
Ad - templar

It will seem real shallow but the main reason I picked the Pact was the Dragon Heraldry of their faction symbol, Daggerfall covenant was a close second with my favorite colour being dark blue.

That and I usually play a Nord in all Elderscrolls games and like look of Argonians too.

While I do have a few characters in the other Alliances the majority of my characters are in the Pact, I have at least one character of every race but the majority are Nords.

Other than that I never really gave my alliance choice much thought, rarely ever matters outside of PVP, which I rarely bother with.

I play all alliances, purely as PvE.

The leaders....i play only EP and AD i just cant with Emeric, too bad i couldn't leave him in the Far Shores