As a long time player of the original Renegade, I can safely say it isn't Empires. I don't think having a commander would add anything to Renegade. It's not just that people wouldn't listen, but people SHOULDN'T listen. The commander in Renegade would have no situational awareness (requires level overview) to provide overall strategy, which would amount to micromanaging anyway due to smallish Renegade maps. Furthermore, he can't really enforce locks on what people purchase with their money, because unlike Empires, it is the players' money instead of the team's. What else could a commander do?
If you're going to add some organizational layer on top of the game, what you REALLY want is small squads. However, even that might be overkill. Without any kind of revive mechanism, it'll be hard to keep those players together.
In conclusion, I think Westwood had it right. No commanders, no squads. I personally don't know what they planned for Renegade 2, but maybe else somebody can elaborate on that.