i mean, this is pretty much true for the west as well. towards the end, the western emperors wielded negligible controll over their de jure posessions and odoacers coup brought little qualitative change for the population, regnum italiae or not. and charlemagne three centuries later and his successors were essentially just larping, lets be honest.

besides, all this continuation and succession nonsense was really just propaganda and intellectual masturbation by the various ruling classes trying to justify their rule.