The kingdom management is the best part of the game.
It's an illusion. It feels important, and the mechanics are engaging enough to invest time in it. But as a game system, the input is minimal and limited to character selection, and output is irrelevant as it only gives loot.
It also adds a cost to resting - PF:KM has the one of the best rest systems in CRPGs to date.
It's quite entertaining in the early chapters where you're pressed for time, and the character skills are low enough to actually fail or waste time, but later I just found it to be a pointless chore. You can just go to your destination no matter the exhaustion, then just rest before entering. the only place I actually used rations was Armag's Tomb. Also, the cooking system is by far the most useless element in the entire game to the point I just dump all the ingredients in the castle chest.
The stat ranks tie to items you get as rewards from artisans, the best loot in the game comes from them.
I don't really care for effortless loot.