I only found that Roman+Papal States hybrid* thread, but I do remember a lot of posts in different threads, even before the announcement of this DLC, that discussed adding (Western) Romans**. Even some surveys that showed that Romans were kind of popular if included in a Late Antiquity themed DLC
Anyways, this is way better than splitting Italians or Teutons concepts.
* is there a contemptuous word for hybrid in English?. That’s what I feel for this Roman+Papal States concept
** I opposed it