In early 1E, Lookshy was just “the Dragonblooded who objected to the Realm and had enough magitech to make that stick”. Other than that, they were often dealt with as Realm Lite, right down to having Wyld Hunts and so on and so forth. This wasn’t really based on anything written about Lookshy in specific, but because the only information about Dragonblooded society that was available was in the Dragonblooded book, which dealt solely with Dynastic Dragonbloods.
Later in 1E’s run the authors began to moderate Lookshy. This was because they expanded Lookshy’s capabilities in a large way in the Outcaste book, giving them enough magical infrastructure that they can use modern military deployment strategies (i.e., they had the ability to fly in troops, deploy on a few day’s notice and so on). So it was decided that Lookshy was not as fervent in their dealings with Anathema as the Realm. When 2E came along, they further cemented this idea into the canon.
The reason to make Lookshy less openly hostile to the Solars is because of where they are and what they do. Lookshy is the reason that the Scavenger Lands are free from the Realm’s iron grip, seeing as how they keep the Realm from interfering in local affairs. The Scavenger Lands is the default location for a Solar game, primarily because the Realm has no control over it and thus a Solar can afford to flare their anima now and then within the area and not have an immediate Wyld Hunt on his ass (which would happen almost immediately anywhere else in the Threshold states). At first it was assumed that Lookshy was mainly focused at the edge of the Scavenger Lands, busy either trying to repulse the Realm or the Mask of Winters. When it was decided that the Seventh Legion had far more mobility and had redoubts and bases scattered throughout the Scavenger Lands as part of its logistic/strategic doctrine, they needed to come up with some other reason why Lookshy isn’t going to fall on any Solar who flares their anima banner in Nexus like the wrath of the Elemental Dragons. They came up with Lookshy’s passive “wait and see” idea when it comes to anathema. That is, they wait until the anathema is a direct threat or shows an obvious weakness. The justification for this doctrine is that Lookshy has no desire to expend valuable Dragonblooded resources (which can take decades to replace) on a single anathema, much less a Circle. They’re simply stretched too thin to deal with you.
In 2E the position of Lookshy re the anathema is not “neutral”. They hate you. They hate you in the way that the modern US does North Korea. But, much like the US and North Korea, they can’t afford to expend the manpower and political capital to stomp you into the dust. Not to mention there is a very good chance that the anathema has nukes (ie, a min-maxed Dawn Caste able to butcher a dozen Dragonblooded in the process of taking him down and probably lay waste to the countryside in the process).