Otherwise you would be hating Sirion as much as I do. I think only Gabanus hates it as much as I do.
But I still love Sirion... it's just need some hard work now with old people leaving. And the Royal thing was more of a backup plan. Even being hated, Erik married with Judge Sophia and that was enough to continue going down in popularity, lol.
My character Brock is no PM, but he is King. And he rules 4 cities and definitely more than 7 regions.
The key here is "no PM, but he is King". It's like to compare apples to bananas... Erik was just Duke. If Sirion was a Monarchy and he the King... see?