Maybe to skew the interpretation? Maybe to plant a seed of doubt on how pernitious their role is?

It comes, via a long path that includes “kaiser”, from Caesar. One of the early Ivans started using it, it stuck, and even when they tried changing to imperator people kept using tsar/czar. In English it seems to be used informally to describe the person in charge even if the are more of a figurehead than a locus of actual authority.

czar has an connotation of tyranny while emperor has varying levels of control. Contemporary to russian czar we have the much less powerful hre emperor and the japanese emperor controlled by the shogun.