Here's what Heth does control. It was stated in TBL that Heth finally brought "pure" meritocracy to the State (and likely the main trait that's deemed "meritorious" is loyalty to Heth).
So while Heth doesnt necessarily have the control and loyalty of the population, he has the loyalty of the new generation of young "Meritocracts", young leaders who will be increasingly growing in power and who owe their new power and position to Heth.
Thats enough for a dictator to work with.
The last two paragraphs of the
Tomorrow A Dream chronicle have an ample bit of information regarding these points, indicating both that the 'New Meritocracy' is indeed a boon to the weaker ( and more numerous ) levels of caldari society as well as he's apparently not one to take power, then hand it over to his own lickspittles/followers.
There's still plenty of wrong with Heth, but the man has two sides and should be, at least OOCly, seen as such. Imho, most of the caldari rp implosion with TEA was due to the broad assumption made by TonyG that "ur doin it wrong", claiming that the State's meritocracy was in dire need of a revision, due to corruption and so on, and not to the fact that Heth is a singular and ambiguous leader.
Also, Ken, thanks for another great video