There is some attention being given to Leeds, hopefully in the next patch. Without going into detail about what exactly is going to happen, it ought to address the 'controlled' nature of the system.
More to a specific point, Bretonia is open to be slapped for what its doing. It's just most do not seem to care to do anything about it.
There is a long overdue story beat that I intend to get posted soon, which will hopefully expand and express more about the situations in and around those areas.
This is in Hokan purple because I can't legally use dev gold for it