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I understand that abhumans like ogryns have evolved independently on various worlds, based on local conditions. This means there must be a great deal of variance between ogryns of different worlds in terms of height, strength, intelligence, etc. There must also be some grey areas, such as a world where humans are significantly taller and tougher than average but whose status as 'ogryns' is a matter of contention.

Are Space Marines known to recruit in those grey areas? Or are their standards of genetic purity so strict that no deviation from baseline humans (aside from individual advantages, like the ones found in high-level athletes IRL) is tolerated?

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An Ogryn Space Marine would be a sight to behold. Not something I’ve seen mentioned in the fluff though. It would make sense from a raw power perspective, so the fact there aren’t any can be explained by saying that Space Marines only have recruits that are strictly human.

They're recruited as preteens, any variance on physiology is going to be utterly obliterated by the effects of the implantation process.

Catachans are even known as "little Ogryns" but even if they're 10 or 15% stronger than normal, a twelve year old who is 15% stronger is nothing compared to the genetic and hormonal changes they will undergo to become a marine.

They're not recruiting for strength, they're recruiting for ability to physically survive implantation, which is nothing to do with how big your muscles are and lots more to do with how close to baseline human you are and if your mind and body can go through it without breaking

This isn’t something well covered in the background.

Ultimately, Ogryns, Ratling, Squats, Beastmen and the other lesser known, somewhat more bonkers ones, all come from human stock. And with Squats/Kin returned replete with new background, we know they at least aren’t the result of natural evolutionary processes. Rather, they seem to have started off as Children of the STC, created from gene banks to be well adapted to life in the Galactic Core. And since then, their Votann (which are STC Databases) have ensured each new generation is similarly tailored to predicted and emerging issues.

However, at least up to 10,000 years or so, they could also produce offspring in the traditional manner - ref House of the Ancients for Necromunda.

This now raises the questions as to whether the other Abhumans are, or at least started, as deliberate genetic adaptations to different needs. And if so, how far removed did that leave them from unaltered human? As in, has speciation occurred, or can they still produce offspring with a baseline human, and that child in turn be fertile. Right now? I can’t think of any confirmed instances.

It also raises the question as to whether other human colonies had similar, but presumably lesser, adaptation applied.

I argue it only makes sense to have done so. As Alien Romulus explores? Currently we’re adapted for life on Earth. Millions of years of evolution tends to do that. So, when going out into the galaxy, having a technological tweak to ensure we can successfully colonise and then thrive upon non-Earth standard worlds makes sense. The abhumans as we know them now are just a more extreme and severe example.

Anyways. What does this have to do with Marines?

Quite simply, we don’t know how “pure” the candidate needs to be. We know the process requires the Y chromosome, and that at least the Blood Angel Geneseed can take a body cursed and rendered wretched by Baal’s solar radiation, and churn out someone of angelic countenance and physical perfection.

So how far can that go? Could you have a successful implantation and conversion on an Abhuman? If not, how far away from relatively baseline human (working on my assumption some level of gene crafting was once common place, required for colonisation efforts) can you go before things go wonky and you’ve squandered the Geneseed?

This is definitely a grey area. For example, the Death Guards before they turned to Chaos recruited from Barbarus which had been ruled for a long time by Chaos alien overlords. It's very likely that the humans of Barbarus adapted to survive and, in the processed, mutated to become different from baseline humans.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1st Edition, when the original Space Marine and Guard lists - complete with abhumans in the case of the latter - were created, there was mention that the Marines DO NOT LIKE abhumans.

That was a very long time ago, and many editions ago, so it might no longer be the case. But by the same token it hasn't been contradicted, either (though one might argue that at the very least, abhumans disappeared for quite a while, so there would have been no point in issuing a change in that particular bit of lore).

What is and isn't "Abhuman" is a pretty fuzzy line.

Many youths from the gangs of Necromunda get sent to the Imperial Fists and the Goliath gangers are considered by some to be borderline, if not fully, Abhuman.

The people of Fenris are also notably hardier than those of other worlds, something many suspect is due to genetic tampering of various Feral tribes that were relocated there by the Emperor during the Great Crusade in order to boost its population to benefit the VIth Legion recruiting pool.

The Blood Angels also take aspirants from the rad wastes who are often quite mutated. Whether that counts as "abhuman" is anyone's guess.

Imperial Astartes wouldn't pick from Beastmen, Ogryns or Ratlings though. They're too removed from the base human genome to suit the Astartes process.