>>2108589
Control is what should fix this. Low control reduces province war score cost. Which means those big bloated asian empires can get gobbled up fast, but centralized states in Europe or feudatories in Japan for example are slower to conquer each other.

at least, that's how it was supposed to work, but they probably bitched out and made Control too easy to manage. That's what it seemed like in the previews.
low Control really needs to wreck your country. The later Ming was a titan on paper but couldn't even balance the budget or supply its army, all because it ceded so much control outside the capital. 0% control should make a location a big source of corruption that lowers control in neighboring provinces, like a source of anti-control.