The entire affair is just utterly bizarre.
Genuinely hope the rumours now circulating are false and this was just something like botched plastic surgery, which was made more complicated by the timing of the King’s cancer diagnosis.
I still maintain this is very much a legitimate story based on the shambolic handling alone, though.
It certainly doesn’t instil confidence in any one even passably aware of what is going, which is not great for the institution of the Royal Family or public trust more broadly, at a time when public trust is already being undermined at every turn.
That is the element I think many are missing when they ask “why is anyone bothered?”
The photo is just a small part of a larger, spiralling, problematic handling of what otherwise could have been a relative non-story (if, of course, the hospitalisation was indeed for non-emergency surgery, of course).
What the shambolic management of the entire affair indicates is either:
A) The RF and RH are even more dysfunctional and/or incompetent than previously thought.
B) There is a major scandal/issue they are attempting to hide via distraction.
C) Something unplanned and serious happened to the next Queen Consort (and, by extension the next King and his heirs) and this is their best attempt to hide the true nature of the situation.
D) A combination of more than one option above, which is unfortunately not outside the realm of possibility given who is involved.
At least for me, the entire situation is another in an infinitely long list of examples of why the monarchy should be abolished.