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alright I've gone through two versions of fluff for my Tau army, but each time people have said it was too unorthodox, so here's my third attempt:
the basic plot is that my commander is a clone of Commander Puretide created in a secret project. his entire life has been choreographed to ensure that he grows up to be a perfect replica of the Commander, and he was implanted at birth with a Puretide Biochip to ensure that he doesn't stray too far from his past existence. he doesn't know who he is, but he knows those around him are keeping secrets from him. now he is at a crucial point in his life, and if all goes as planned he will not enjoy what comes next: he is planned to lose the one he cares about most. he has fallen in love with his lieutenant, just like the original Puretide. she is scheduled to be killed in an ork attack in a moment that changed the original Puretide from a warm, passionate individual to a cold, logical tactician. however there are two who object to this plan, the Ethereal in charge of the project, and a copy of the Puretide hologram that instructs his younger clone under the guise of Commander Maz'Er. while they will follow their orders they will try their hardest to bend the rules to try and send the young clone on a different path, one that the Puretide hologram thinks will result in an even greater commander.
so how does that work? is this more acceptable?

Why not let your Space Marine army be led by a secret clone of the Emperor?

Honestly, it comes across to me like you are trying to hook your character onto something famous and important in order to raise their own importance. They're riding coattails.

To which, I ask a question:

Why?

Why is it that your character has to be shoehorned into being exactly the same as another character? Your character can be brilliant without being a literal copy of an established one. More to the point, your character is going to be a whole lot more interesting if he is NOT a copy. Think about it this way:

If your character is a copy, he is already pretty much known. "Oh he is just as awesome as this guy," is said, but in more of a yawn. You haven't really created there, you've just taken an existing guy and added a potentially interesting twist to the plot when he goes off the rails.

And that's worth noting, I like the idea of a guy diverging away from the whole Greater Good when forced to make that impossible decision, but my point is that he does not need to be Puretide 2 to do that. When you drop the Puretide stuff, you open up his chance to be his own character. Don't shy away from developing oyur character, it's lazy writing.

I guess I felt the need to make him Puretide's clone because I feel like I've lived my entire life in the shadow of more successful members of my family. so I tend to empathize with characters who have a great burden of expectations placed on them, but struggle to meet them. what about this:
the commander is from a prominent line of the fire caste, and after going thorough advanced officer training he is given command of the fire warriors on a small colony on an ice world. mostly he was sent there because he was only average in a family of extraordinary commanders, and they needed somewhere out of the way to keep him from tarnishing their reputation. as the commander struggles to win glory on the remote ball of ice against the local imperial remnants he finds out why even though his forces appear superior to the imperials they haven't been wiped off the map by his predecessors.

The problem is that the Tau don't really think in terms of reputations. They think in terms of Greater Good. I think you have a lot more interesting of a concept there, but just needs a little more tweaking and pulling to get it to fit just right.

Like I said, the Tau rarely, if ever, make decisions as a matter of pride or reputation, and glory for that matter. Those kinds of things just are discordant with the usual Tau philosophy, usually. However, I can think of a way for something similar to what you want, and has a lot of potential for story, let me lay this beat on you:

This Commander of yours has been through all of the high end officer training. He has done well, certainly above average, but has a bit of a streak of aggression to him. It isn't anything that would get him drummed out, but it is noted that this Commander is far more likely to take the fight to the enemy when it may be a more sound decision to fall back or use more evasive techniques. Deciding that the Greater Good would not be served by having a young and more aggressive Commander on the front, this guy gets assigned to Iceball14 (may want to tweak the name ;p ). Naturally, our young Commander does not really enjoy the order, as he feels out of place and not where he can be at his best.

That is until Iceball 14 gets attacked, or is caught by an Imperial fleet that got spat out to an invasion late to the party thanks to Warp travel, and decide that the Iceball is dust. This is where our young Commander's story begins and he manages to at least hold the Imperials off, shocking the attacks with an aggression not expected from a defending force.

Commander Yourguy wins out when the rest of the Tau arrives to chase off the last Imperial forces and he has enough of a sway and influence now to be allowed to press the attack.

see that I like. thank you