I am not defending shithead here. That statement is fucked and should be removed.

Those are not the only options. He didn't have to be an actual monarch to be capable of resistance. That's the point of the above quote, people with no power and no hope of succeeding fought back, so why couldn't he? Puppet or not, useless or not, he chose to continue being a puppet for these monsters and he himself earnestly viewed himself as being a coward and collaborator. He still went along with them, he still provided a figurehead, whether refusal would have changed anything or not, he still chose to do so, which is something Pu Yu himself viewed as wrong and criminal