I don't think it's that weak really. It looks like you can have as many regions as you like.
So... A confederacy with two players who have 6 regions each has 10 actions for the confederacy.
Whereas a Great Empire only has 7 and the same number of regions.
If this is correct, allowing Great Kingdoms within confederacies as well would give the confederacy 12 actions which is a little silly.
I think it all looks good and we'll see whether it needs tweaking when we play. Uhh, you play.
All that aside, confederacies look cool.