As far as I know, and since I am far from being a very active players these days, I have not heard about any "minor" faction developpement.
It makes me a little sad too since I see all the rage from some of the people actually getting CCP's attention, while the most damaged (or not enough damaged) factions are probably these two ones.
They both share similar positions in the Empire in terms of power, territory, and social position : both of them being the two most successful cases of Reclaiming, one with an old but tainted name, and the other one quite young and has yet to build its prestige) . They also both share by contrast a blind willingness to be part of the Empire for one, and a very rebellious and proud behavior for the other one, caring a lot of for its independence.
The Khanid Kingdom and the Ammatar Mandate are two polar opposites in terms of image however. While the Ammatar have been pictured over time like the brainless, witless sheeps they seem to be, with a crumbling economy, mediocre schools and not a lot of other redeeming virtues besides their somehow unshakable faith, the Khanid Kingdom have always been pictured as proud and independant, and have rarely seen any defeat or bad stain on their image. They actually look "cool", with nice looking missile ships that everyone love, with cyberknights and all that fancy fluff.
So, I could speak a lot more about it in details, but I think overall that you get the idea : I have rarely seen a faction more shitty than the Ammatar, and at the contrary, so cool that Khanid uberales. I feel that it damages their respective RP. Yes, even the Khanid. The Khanid may be the pragmatic slaver bastards that they are, their history overall is filled with success and awesomeness. It unfortunately does not bring a lot of RP drama or material, the same way that a pitiful brainless faction as the Ammatar with not much redeeming features can not seriously bring any deep RP material. Eventually it's a matter of being too white or too dark here in the portrayal.
In any case, I would really like to see a little more care brought up for those factions. We have an interesting duality where the Khanid and the Ammatar are being pushed in the arms of the Empire, for different reasons, but both political. We could learn a lot about them in the process and creating internal conflict where I actually want to see some Ammatars that wish for more independance or a better position. The Ardishapur taking care of everything and making the Ammatar an even more spineless faction is the worst thing that has happened to that faction in my opinion. It only serves to hamper their developement even more, unless, of course (and that's the whole point), they start to actually revolt a little against that. I would like to see more Ammatar slave owners used to their extensive rights and privileges actually plotting and doing :politics: to act against the rise of Ardishapur. I would like to see them backed up secretly (or not) by Ardishapur natural enemies, like Kor-Azor or Tash-Murkon. Especially TM since there is a lot of trade and investment opportunities in the Mandate to be battled with the Caldari megas already here (yes as you can guess, the Ammatar are so witless that they give to the Caldari half of the profit of their soil).
As for the Khanid... Well, I haven't thought so much about it, and it is more delicate since they could need a little more hardship to my eyes...