It feels like an arrangement that's just waiting to be abused/made use of at some weird and critical juncture in history. Maybe it's useful as an "escape clause" should the nominally representative government go astray?
Well, it mattered in WWII. "The Man Called Intrepid" tells about the secret services swearing loyalty to the king. In the event that the Nazis conquered England, they could oppose the newly-formed government without feeling disloyal, because their loyalty wasn't to the government of England, it was to the king.
