Yeah, in certain cases, high dread is much more important than acumen. You can always switch governors a few decades down the line, when the population is converted, to a higher acumen governor.

The problem also is that the A.I. gives titles with command starts to its best generals no matter how economically important the province is.
That I didn't realise. Hmm, I wonder then if they're's a table of preffered rankings for titles in the files somwhere, like the way hero's are preferenced to certain units like RK's and whatnot.
I presume it'd be the same for the acumen, piety and dread increasing titles if that were the case.