For some reason the developer used "loyalty" to describe two separate UI elements. There's the loyalty bar which determines how fast obedience drains, and the loyalty "skilltree" which unlocks stuff. In my opinion even if the developer plans on deprecating the loyalty bar, the value for the "skilltree" should be renamed submission because it's a bit comical to be speaking of loyalty when you're just talking about someone's willingness to take it up the butt.