Both should be held in equal esteem and honor because they surround our common Mother the Church with a regal diversity. Even more, in keeping intact and inviolable what many regard as ancient and precious, this diversity of rites and institutions is not in any way opposed to true and sincere unity. On the opposite side of the question, Latin Catholics balk at the patriarchal principle of local, self-governing churches a point of major consequence with the East. Undoubtedly, theological issues between Catholicism and Orthodoxy are, in the abstract, more important. But in the concrete, the patriarchal principle is equally important to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Governance is the uppermost concern.
This is the crux of the matter. In the meantime the Orthodox Eastern Church, through a variety of political and religious pressures, has fragmented. Autonomous and national segments of Orthodoxy have multiplied. The question is inevitable, then. History provides an answer.