I think I have a theory of what's going on in sumeru that also has to do with the Slime Archon theory. Kusanali is just a mask, a puppet ruler if you will

A puppet ruler is a person who has a title indicating possession of political power, but who, in reality, is either loyal to or controlled by outside individuals or forces. Such outside power can be exercised by a foreign government, in which case the puppet ruler's domain is called a puppet state. Wikipedia

So as we all know dendro slimes can summon smaller dendro slime as they're aid and they disappear once the large dendro slime is killed

And compared to the rest of the Seven she is quite young only being around 500 and compared to Zhongli being a whopping 6,001 years old and Venti being 2,001 years old (yes they're birthdays have just past so I'm adding the extra years) that's extremely young for an Archon let alone a god

So either a council of corrupt scholars, the Fatui or the TRUE dendro archon (if there even is one and Kusanali could be the one actually in charge) could be the one behind the ploy of a mask known as Lesser Lord Kusanali

(Still gonna throw my primos at her since I made it my job to adopt all the teens and kids in genshin side eyes the mond kids I will get you one day Bennett and Klee... One day)

What are all of your thoughts?