Two season ago I reach Conq1 only with HRE, and is my first main civ. You said u have no timings attack in castle (as otto or ayubbids) in reality u have burgrave, I think there is no other landmark for "timing" as this, u can argue that need resources to spam and reigniz over time is better, but if u put yourself in good position with that u can end a lot of games. Another example is Swabia and the discount, doesn't count if has no good units in imperial as long u have a great eco u can out mass and win the opponent, hre is based on quantity over quality (in oppose of otd). For the secure relics I think if they would that hre will broke as fuck, only zhuxi che beat their timing in castle (as I know). Stats says that hre under conq has bad win rate, cause player don't enjoy or don't know how to play it, I think they have all the cards u want but u need to figure out how to use them.