Yes, the meddling certainly went farther back. Unfortunately, many Western Europeans in the 19th and even early 20th centuries, out of ignorance, considered the Balkan peoples relatively 'wild.' The same paternalism that tainted European colonialism and Europe's approach to the Balkans and the Levant likely influenced modern Greece's monarchs.

Yes, Queen Frederika certainly had her personal charms and cared about the Greeks, but politically and in diplomatic circles she was a loose cannon and, fatally for the monarchy, a very bad example for her son.