The first diagram labeled "Normal Topology" shows Master in East and no other master. Later they acknowledge that lots of stuff doesn't work if Master is not in

The first diagram labeled "Normal Topology" shows Master in East and no other master. Later they acknowledge that lots of stuff doesn't work if Master is not in East because of latency. So then there's all this Orchestration, and it never could have worked in the first place? That seems incredible - what am I missing?