Astilamos and I seem to have fairly similar playing times so I feel I can comment here with evidence to back me up. There was a stage, just after he started the run to hero, when he was getting tooled repeatedly by fortress/sylvan gangs (or just sheer numbers). To say he only showed up when others were there to support him is not entirely true. And given that he did get ganged repeatedly when he heroed, I can see why he might have hung around below hero for so long.

Shadow imm seems to be coming in for a lot of stick too, but some process needs to be in place to prevent Empire from becoming overpowered. I suspect that Shadowimm might be the one who heads up this task. If Empire was getting crushed again I suspect the anathema's would be fewer.

As far as Astilamos getting Emperor, something else just occurred to me. How many people from the first wave of imperials that he was in are actually around today? Not many that I can think of (though I could be wrong). Are any? If not, then that is something that works in his favor.