If we were seriously "powergaming" this realm, then I'd finally find out whether 3 bad marks can kick out a region lord. No point giving up a perfectly good rural region, or a rich mountain region, just because its current lord is underqualified.
Boot him out, get in new blood. Hey, that just solved two problems at once!
1: Your lord sucks. IR doesn't protect him from getting booted from his lordship for being a sucky lord. People don't have the right to have any positions (Even oaths aren't protected under IR just FYI). Now you can replace him with a more competent person, or rather, someone who will listen to your every command.
2: Social mobility!!!! Hey, because people keep talking about that term as if it means something, this will allow the despotic ruler to give the semblance that he gives a flying procreative act about people moving up in his realm. Mostly though, if you're a smart guy you'll find guys who are either too dumb to think on their own or who don't care enough about being subversive elements and/or intrarealm conflict stuff that they do "phor dee lulz".
And so you have the map to ensure that your realm is a megapower. Insert evil cackle here I suppose.
Now before anyone starts whining about how "NOT PHUN!!1 OMGBBQwithA1steaksauce" that would be...that might be because of some complicating reasons. For example, you might be sour graping it, because in fact, YOU want to be the dude calling the shots. Nothing wrong with that. Lots of us want to be the big boss even if we aren't.
Or...maybe you are one of those "4 D lolz!" guys who likes showing that there will always exist humans who are manipulative and scheming bastards no matter what environment. But hey, some people do in fact find that fun, so my contention is that some people can also find the other end of the spectrum fun as well. You know, being a dude who just clicks links. Some people do in fact enjoy that, you know? Less work for them, and less time spent. The rewards are seeing that your unit grew in strength, beat the solid waste products out of your enemies' egestive orifice, get some gold, etc.
