another dumb question

[Kuruharan]

That would mean Esgaroth is the survivors of Dale.

Yes and no. Yes, the survivors of Dale (such as there were) went to Laketown. However, the town had been there from a long time before.

Dale was not a kingdom before Bard. The rulers are referred to as "lords of Dale." While they were not directly ruled by the Dwarves, a certain dependency of the Men to the Dwarves seems to have tacitly existed. That was the usual way of things whenever Men were living near the kingdoms of Dwarves. The Dwarves seemed to like taking something of a mild hegemony over their human neighbors.