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I've seen a lot of lore/products that seem to be emphasizing increasing conflict between Imperium and Tau. Very cool stuff. But I had some thoughts that eventually some new lore will kind of push things in the opposite direction. I.E. Tau will end up working cooperatively with the Imperium, although still fighting them in other conflicts much like the Eldar have always done, but not necessarily locked in an all war to the death like some of the other factions.

This is my prediction. This would be more of a M42, Post Great Rift Story Arch

Eventually. the Tau Empire (Empire) integrating millions/billions of humans is going to really come back to haunt them. Rising chaos corruption in the human population is going to be a problem, and the humans may even succeed in corrupting some of the other species in the Empire.

This is going to lead to a massive chaos uprising at some point which will push the Empire to the brink. In this conflict, I foresee the Imperium offering some limited yet self serving military assistance, so we end up with a bunch of wars where space marines and Tau are fighting together against chaos.

When the dust settles, the Tau Empire will have survived. But they are going to seriously re-evaluate integrating more humans into the Empire. Indeed, many species will want humans out of the Empire completely, but that is viewed as too extreme. Instead, the Empire will initiate a pause on conquering new human worlds until the earth caste can figure out how to control chaos corruption. This leads to a new detente with the Imperium. Conflicts and wars with the Imperium will continue, but will be much more limited. There will also be new levels of clandestine cooperation between Tau and Imperium against common enemies.

Product Ideas: New Mission packs for Imperium and Tau cooperative missions during the conflict. New models: Chaos Kroot? (Why not we need more chaos stuff!)

This has already happened to some extent with the fabled lost 4th wave of expansion. The survivors of that expedition go even further and are radically wary of non-Tau client species since they were the ones who were possessed and killed a bunch of their fleet when they were trapped in the warp. Several battle groups have already been censured for being overzealous in wiping out non-Tau during compliance campaigns. And now the Startide Nexus is in threat of being overrun by Death Guard who can get within striking distance into the heart of the Empire if they break through. Frankly speaking, I feel like the Tau are even less relevant to the Imperium now than they were before given the emphasis on Tyranids and Chaos being pre-eminent threats to Imperial regions. The Tau being under siege by Chaos forces suits the Imperials fine and their actions during Octarius seems to imply that at best they might try to balance the fight between the two rather than provide any outright military assistance.

Its part of the lore already. The Imperium is a big place, and rewards/punishments are based on results. The general policy of the Imperium that all Xenos are heretical and must be purged is put aside by person with appropriate rank under certain circumstances.

That runs all the way from squad sergeant who thinks that they should stop shooting at their immediate Tau targets to combine firepower against the daemons that have just burst through the walls of reality, all the way up to Sector/crusade commanders that deem that localised cooperation with parties that would otherwise be foes is justified.

If their gamble pays off, then they keep their head.

The Tau are a (currently small) strategic threat to the Imperium, but may be a tactical ally under the right circumstances.