To be clear I play for the Empire 99% of the time but am running a Stormcloak this time, the Whiterun mission fucks me up because Balgruuf is one of the only pro-Empire Jarls who doesn’t suck. My one issue with the Empire was always the Jarls.
Like, out of the 9 Holds, there’s only 2 where I think the Imperial option is a clearly better ruler, Whiterun and Windhelm. Riften and Falkreath being the obvious places where the pro-Empire Jarl is clearly worse.