Except of course that his Hatness' AI has been know to excom for rather random reasons and that it is very hard to gauge why he suddenly likes you or hates you. Which is what having a player at the helm could help prevent. TheFlax could actually post his own, personal Pop-o-meter in the forums. A rathing from 1 to 10 of each faction whenever he feels there's a change in relationship. That would make it clear to everybody.