I'm going to be so unpopular (if being more unpopular is even possible for me) with these opinions, and I'm fully aware I'm probably a super-minority here, if not entirely alone but . . . . .
No one is really a leader of anything, and the fact that PCs keep trying to act as if they are "The Leader, chosen by THE PEOPLE" only makes me think even more so that we aren't capable of handling the role and the role should be lessened in importance if not removed.
I just don't think there's as much narrative value in calling yourself The Supreme Leader, and having some people stand around telling others to HALT, as is being implied.
The Chancellor isn't the leader of Cordor, King Edward is. Which ever Dread Matron/Tyrant isn't the leader of their district, House Freth/Claddath are, etc.
I think there's better story-telling we can tell, than pretending we have little fiefdoms. I would even go so far as to say I don't think PCs should be acting as the primary military force. We have an NPC population for that and the constant need for PCs to feel as if they are in control and have ownership over settlements is problematic and hasn't been going well over the years. It leads to massively inflated egos. Enforce some laws in your territory, but to act as if that handful of adventurers is the only line of defense and they must fight all that settlements battles for it, leads to never-ending PvP cycles and people excusing that PvP as necessary. It contributes heavily, in my opinion, to the lowest quality form of conflict, which is just ... PvP egoism. Who has the strongest fighting force is always being openly bragged about on a message board somewhere. The strongest fighting force? Really? This group of adventurers is stronger than, let's say, all of Cordor's real military?
It just seems a very narcissistic and overly abused system that maybe is overdue for adjustment or removal.
There's already a very obvious trend of many characters just not being interested in RPing with anyone who isn't an official, and working as a type of 'secret official' has made that very obvious to me, where people will just refuse to interact with nearly anyone until "The Important One" gets here, and then the real RP can start.
The whole system, in my eyes, just incentivises OOC (discord) co-operation.
That is not to say everyone is cheating through metagaming, but it does reward those who do, and that specific kind of metagaming is near impossible to police for DMs because it can easily be done through private channels and have the necessary RP sprinkled in in-module to legitimise anything that was ordained.
It isn't the good old days anymore. How often is it that a settlement leader is the leader without being involved in any discord channels at all? When was the last time 'the greatest fighting force' didn't have a discord channel? I'm not saying it's everyone all the time, but it's certainly most of them most of the time.
Way too much OOC communication goes on to cement peoples claims to power, before it is excused by RP to justify their already predesigned political ideas, and anyone who doesn't partake in this is at a massive disadvantage, and there's really no way to police it. There's no reliable way to ensure people are RPing organically and not forming bonds of unshakable OOC loyalty between their characters, when we give them a system that relies untirely on # of votes. The absolute best and easiest way to game that system, is to co-ordinate OOCly to get more votes. If you're someone with a lot of OOC friends on the server, you're going to have a huge advantage over someone who keeps their identity anonymous on their characters and does not partake in OOC communications.
This is all because only us, the adventurer PC bourgeoisie, decide for the NPC proletariat, who the "leader", "law enforcement" and "military" will be.
In now well over over a decade and a half of being here, I've never seen a narriative arc take place within those systems that couldn't have also taken place outside of them.
There's nothing stopping people from forming a faction and being a very powerful leader of a faction and having people to boss around, and using those people to boss outsides around with, but to enshrine it with the false-legitimacy of perceived "democracy" or being the only ones who have power in a place, just seems dishonest to the setting, to me.