Are you certain that works? I have never seen it, and I asked around when I used the option and no one ever told me having seen it. I have used it in regions where people *should* have noticed....
If actions were public, this would remove a big difference between priests and ambassadors.
If it is not noticed, then it should be. Spending enough time and money to influence the views of a significant enough portion of the regional population to actually make a significant difference
should be noticed by other people. Not being noticed definitely sounds like a bug to me.