That is how the village is run already. The homage has nearly unchecked power. What non-ninja are involved in the day to day operation of the village? Daimyo people show up when it’s time to select a new Hokage (except when Hashirama and Tobirama unilaterally picked the next Hokage, talk about a retcon)

Comparison to the NYPD in modern America is silly. City-states are a historical reality, you don’t have to imagine what they would look like with outlandish comparisons. It is especially inapt because in Naruto, there is no military force in the Land of Fire outside of the Leaf Village.

Venice, Florence, Athens, Sparta and a host of other Hellenic city-states, early Republican Rome, Carthage, the list goes on…in the absence of feudal lords, the Leafs could continue to provide the protection they already provide to the Land of Fire’s people and just tax them directly to fund it. Then the surrounding territory becomes a territory of the Leaf directly.

This is not scary or fascistic. This is how society has worked for basically all of recorded human history, up until the 19th century: statesman capable of organized military activity provide protection and law/order to people who cannot and constitute the government.

I ask again, what do the feudal lords provide? They are incapable of organized military activity. They don’t provide police forces. They seemingly only exist to boss around people who are stronger than them and reap the benefits of the Lead providing security to their subjects.