They’re all grifters - all monarchies, all around the world and since the beginning of time have been grifters. It’s not like any of them earned a salary and got to where they are by application and interview and successful performance. They are, by definition, grifters off the public purse which they gain access to by waging wars, marrying strategically, keeping a stable house, fending off revolution, etc.
AMW got away with it because everyone around him protected him from scrutiny. The appetite for scrutiny was there, but there were enough people with enough power to stop a proper investigation. That had to be stopped because if you ones rotate AMW you’d have to investigate them all. Let’s see what happens now. Pretty sure the only crime or misdeed he’ll be convicted of is misconduct while in public office, but the punishment will be so terrible that people will be distracted from the trade envoy stuff (and they’ll get nowhere with the SA stuff because the Americans will see to it).
Harry threw a fit because once he left the purview of the RF he could no long grift from the public via his dad.
Grifting is all they know, it’s what they’re born into. It’s in their DNA. It’s their MO, their raison d’etre, their everything. They call it service in return for being on the civil list - but it’s plan to see what it actually is. And without it none of them would be who and where they are. They protect it (the ability to grift), and use the institutions of the state to protect it at all costs.
This is why Meghan can leave and not look back. Her grifting isn’t entitled, or by virtue of birth. Hers is through endeavour but also odious because it’s utterly disproportionate to her output and with hefty doses of shoddy / dubious behaviour (some of which would be recognizable to the RF).
The RF members the public seem to warm to are the ones who keep their grifting secret or low key: Anne not buying new frocks, Queen using tupperware etc. Just enough to be less than someone else they can point to as worse than them - but still a lot. And obvs the monarch gets a total pass.
So, B&E have been raised in a family of grifters but the two most grifting of grifters. I honestly don’t think they know there’s another way. I don’t think they would be able to comprehend a world in which people didn’t give them tonnes of cash for access. They’d be amazed and splutter in disbelief: but this isn’t the way it’s meant to be! They’re pulling the rug from under us and I’ve got children and a profile and what am I meant to do nowww?? The only solution is to stop the access. I don’t think their princess titles could be taken away but I think they can be cut loose financially and in terms of access. It’s renders them “worthless”, and they’ll have to leech off their husbands and in laws.