You have the basis for a new TV show. :)
RE: Tokens. As bad as they are, if you have to interact with them, and they at least know enough to GTF out of the way and let the people that “can do the job” do the job, it’s workable.
When you have a token(s) that actually think “they’re in charge”, that’s when the real problems start and become front and center. My former manager at “the name on the football/soccer stadium in Foxborough, MA” was one of those. And it was terrible.
I understand what you describe, but at my workplace that is difficult; when a real worker is abused by a token like that, they’d call in sick when a meeting was scheduled where the token would be left to explain something on her own - and when the real worker returned, the lesson had been learned (not just by the token, but by the other attendees as well). I’ve noticed that the tokens hire a bunch of their friends, but only if they are not a threat to the token’s job - they are even less competent, and just grateful to have basically no-show jobs with a paycheck and health insurance.
They become the “army of skanks” from the “Mean Girls” movie.