“The pope ratifies their appointments.”
Enough said; he has 100% control over who “gets bishop”.
Theoretically the President “picks” the asst secretary of hod-carrying. Get with it. The pope does not KNOW, seldom does know these people personally. He may know someone like Kurt Campbell, who has a resume as long as your arm, but leaves the lesser missions to underlings. Furthermore, the Holy Father is now having adliminas in groups of bishops because he no longer has the energy to see them one on one for even fifteen minutes. John Paul was in worse shape for the last ten years of his life. The Vatican is a court, and the pope is only the head of that court. The power of that court was greatly limited by the manuevers of Vatican II. Remember that the Curia could not even set the agenda of the Council. Like many councils in history, the council was a revolt against Rome. Trent and Vatican I were notable exceptions.