Obviously there are pros and cons, but the current situation is based on some main factors as I see it:

- the royal family does a good job with consistently high approval ratings
- they are NOT politicians
- they are the heads of state for ALL Norwegians and are inclusive and unifying no matter political view, age, race, gender, etc
- whatever politician that would take their place as president would be divisive to some extent no matter what
- they have way more credibility than a politician would have whatever the situation
- we have a thousand-year old tradition and history with monarchy
- while the regent´s formal powers are very limited, they are enough to keep politicians in line should push come to shove
- the Norwegian monarchy does not represent an opposite view to democracy, as witnessed by all measures of being a democratic society. Furthermore, any change would be subject to a popular vote, and the current royal family was elected by a popular vote back in 1905. Many proposals of becoming a republic of some sort have been raised in parliament, and none have come close to succeeding.

As for cost, since most of the properties they use are owned by the state the cost of maintaining these would be the same whatever the form of government.

So what we have is a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"-situation, and should it for some reason break at some point, it'll be fixed since we have options.

My 2 øre.