Is the galaxy more hostile when you're doing a Fear of the Dark run, or am I just unlucky?

I'm on my fifth attempt at a Fear of the Dark empire, as the last four have had a fanatic xenophobe/purifier as an immediate neighbor that declared war within 5 years of first contact and annihilated me. Is this deliberate? It would fit the vibe, but I've never seen it mentioned in any documentation as a feature.

Edit: if you saw a post very similar to this 5 minutes ago, I posted this same question but mixed up Fear of the Dark and Payback.