For most cabals it’s about choosing the greater enemy. Sure the village can be a pain in the ass if you’re a mage (at lower levels especially) but certain caballed mages might want, from time to time, prevent the head from being taken.

My Outlanders have battled imperials in the village many times, because the war master is objectively “worse” than most villagers.

Likewise Maran may prioritize attacking certain evils raiding battle because again, Glik is objectively worse than pretty much any villager, especially considering that battle tends to skew neutral anyway and even evil villagers tend to be less of a target than an imperial council member.