What BM need is more people playing Priests (I doubt it will happen) or just find a way for religions to survive without Priests, with Lords being able to enlarge the temples. What's the problem in having regional religions!? We don't need SA everywhere. We don't need a Church of Humanity in every continent. Why are the Devs insinuating and calling for broad rather than small and regional religions?
Because a continent is already "small and regional". And, frankly, either a religion is designed to be acceptable to a single realm or a realm and its close allies, or it's designed to be acceptable to most realms.
And because in real life, religions have not generally been "small and regional". Sure, they may start out that way, but the ones that actually
matter? They're continental or global.
And finally, because we've watched the pattern of how religions have worked in this game for a number of years now, and the "small and regional" or state religion thing just isn't making any real difference in interactions. SA does. Maybe you don't like the way SA is run, or the specific differences it makes, but the fact is, a broad-based religion that covers a significant chunk of a continent is an entity that can create (or defuse) conflict in ways that are separate from Realm A wanting Realm B's land or Doge Kepler pissing off High Poobah Rasputin.