I think most readers misunderstood the ml's circumstance. His family specially the former Duke still believes in Noblesse Oblige. This duchy from what he remembers is rich but now its in debt takes to the sudden swarm of monsters that hit their agricultural (mostly peasant work) economy. So the former Duke did his best to defend his territory (you can see the attitude of the younger generation still believes in their family if these peasants dont there will be rebellion). So add the former duchess lavish spending (not supporting the peasants), this will be the result. She only knows how to spend and no managerial ability to support the duke. The heir is down to earth. At least he was educated to mingle with his people.
Think of their family like the Starks(remove Jon Snow storyline and their a perfect family). The current ML is Ned and the current MC is like Catelyn from House Tully. Before the start of game of throne book the North was stable. Everyone was happy.
The current story is like this. Ned and Catelyn don't like or love each other from the start. Ned can defend their region and dont worry about the economics that will be left behind becoz Catelyn is there.
I really did a comparing of GoT and the Og timeline. But if you think about the Og timeline, If Ned Stark and Robert Barattheon lost that is technically their alternative fate. Ml lost in his so called rebellion which leads to his family's demise.
Yeah so the best story to compare this will be Ned and Catelyn's early marriage. There is so much parellism on it.
the title is misdirection, maybe this is smut?