Well, then, the EO are Protestants, then, aren't they? Do they not protest against some of the same things that the Protestant Reformation protested against?
And yet FRoman Catholics and the RCC still consider THEM Catholics.
The Orthodox maintain valid sacraments and substantially agree with the Catholic teachings. They fault us for two things, mainly. 1. A question of church authority resting in the pope as a final authority versus the body of all the bishops. 2. The western compulsion to attempt to define everything (driven by the heresies we are battling) That makes them very close to us.