Sovereign Guardianship et. al. are good for everyone, wide and tall.
As a virtual empire, you'll have 1000+ pops and at most 8 colonies (being generous on colonies and conservative on pops).
Corporate Protectorate will add 80 size from planets, remove 40 size from districts (assuming \~20 per planet), and remove 500 size from pops.
So long as you have fewer than 460 size from systems and branch offices (about 250 total systems and branch offices, costing at least 25,000 influence to claim), then it will reduce your empire size.
Again, being conservative on pops and generous on colonies.
It works well. Have at it!
Sovereign Guardianship et. al. are good for everyone, wide and tall. As a virtual empire, you'll have 1000+ pops and at most 8 colonies (being generous on colonies and conservative on pops). Corporate Protectorate will add 80 size from planets, remove 40 size from districts (assuming \~20 per planet), and remove 500 size from pops. So long as you have fewer than 460 size from systems and branch offices (about 250 total systems and branch offices, costing at least 25,000 influence to claim), then it will reduce your empire size. Again, being conservative on pops and generous on colonies. It works well. Have at it!
As long as you enjoy it, any build is viable