Defering to the emperor on proposals, where the Emperor could be seen as have some sort of authority or at least guiding interest, is one thing. On CfJs and DoVs the Emperor should in most cases be just any other player, with no additional weight or impedement put on their vote. If anything I’d be up for stripping the DEF from non-dynastic proposals.

That’s a good argument for amending how Player DEFs resolve, or even for dropping the clause about DoVs enacting early with the Emperor’s blessing, but this is just about resolving Imperial DEFs. If the rule is inactive you can vote DEF to abstain, if it’s active you can vote DEF to do a not-quite-equivalent-but-near-enough speedy-abstain that doesn’t hold up quorum.

Offhand I can’t find when or why we expanded DEFs from proposals to all votable matters. Perhaps it was just because the more uncertain or distracted players would still vote DEF on complex/core CfJs anyway, and have to be told that these votes didn’t count.

I agree with Josh that it might be a good idea to change/get rid of DEFs on non-proposals but this really just gives the emperor more options. It only mattters if a) they turn on imperial deferentials and then b) vote DEF on a CfJ/DoV. Both of those are intentional actions by the emperor, so I don’t see how this hurts.