I think HOI problem (more familiar with 4) is that it feels much more half baked. US Congress is mostly click a few event popups, click a few policy stuff in a menu and see the congress members just flip. It's more shoehorning it into the HOI system.
I think you could make the process fun, but in paradox style games where you need to generalise a system to fit everywhere in the world, it can fall flat.
I feel like most events in HOI in general are just... popup windows.
You need a very active imagination to piece together those popups into a cohesive story. HOI is a pretty abstract game, but a lot of simulation stuff is going on under the interface.
The map is realtime, so you can see your troops movement. But otherwise, its got a very "newspaper" like feel to events. If something happens, its reported as a popup window.
I think you could make the process fun, but in paradox style games where you need to generalise a system to fit everywhere in the world, it can fall flat.