Faolyn
(she/her)
It's possible you're correct, of course, but I think there's been so much hate towards the Faction Wars for so many years I think it's questionable that they'll use that as their new canon. I can see them redesigning the factions for modern audiences, but not in the way that that adventure did.Taken separately, if we had just "Rhys" or if we had "Guildmaster Montgomery", I think your assertion that it's just looking for a term everyone understands, would be more plausible. But together, they form a picture of two deliberate choices, both of which point toward Faction War.
There are other reasons why I think their choice of Rhys doesn't mean they're going for the FWs. First, Rhys is physically cool-looking, what with the hooves. Secondly, if they had just said "Rhys" then... who is this person? What does this person have to do with training people or finding recruits or being a patron? Third, while all of the factions center around a philosophy, the Ciphers are among the most physical. Showing a martial artist or acrobat falling doing (or failing to do) something makes for an evocative piece, whereas the Sensates... experience things with wonder. It would probably be a beautiful picture, but not one that may necessarily grab you or show anything different than a normal D&D picture--and it's hard to show how Montgomery sighing because a recruit failed to experience something.
And of course, fourth, they ignored nearly everything from the Ravenloft adventures, keeping only the bit about Azalin blowing himself up--and even then, they changed how that worked.
Obviously, we won't know until they release a Sigil-oriented book, but I think there's reason enough to think they'll go for the traditional factions, or something similar.