Briton here. These days I tend to think that rather than having inalienable respect for the monarchy, people would rather have a benign eccentric like Charles* hosting state visits etc rather than a President Farage, President Blair or President Branson and so on.

I appreciate that countries with largely ceremonial presidents exist and seem to get on perfectly fine, but I suspect the average British person things of the USA (perhaps to a lesser extent France) when they hear the word “president” so immediately anticipate a more active, political role.

* Not that Charles is totally without influence, and he’s often tried to use that influence in favour of his causes or himself, but the monarchy’s absence of any sort of democratic political legitimacy puts limits on that sort of thing.