I'm assuming that the political matters we're consulted on and get to make decisions about - like how the illegal clone children should be housed - impact our approval with certain electors. Or at least they're doing something - I don't think these events are just here for flavor text. I could be wrong, of course, this is just my gut instinct.
Has anybody been able to figure out specific impacts of these choices? Any interesting events that can come from them? I know the Grib colony has a whole chain of events that it can cause, for example.
Also, there are some characters who I have the option to propose an engagement to, but they always reject me (Stoyan, Rippling Eternity, Branekka, and Eve's daughter Star are the ones that come to mind). Is there anything I can do to make these engagements available? Or is the option just there for the realism of "sometimes you are going to get rejected, even if you're in line for the throne".