That's sorta fair, and yet...
I feel like I need to stop myself, but it's arguments like yours that make me want to push the other side so much. Why do Betas exists? Or Alpha? Alpha testing? Why was there a Multiplayer Beta, but no Singleplayer one? Do you not think, perhaps, before going into EA there should've been a Beta of the Singleplayer?
And on a broader vision, do you think if Fallout 76 had released as "Early Access" on steam, it shouldn't have gotten the criticism it did?
Really hard to say anything definitive without knowing full context of Bannerlords development so far.
I also find 8 years are a long time in which plenty would and should have already been done and working properly. If everything went as planned. Doubt that TW planned to develop 8 years till they produced anything usable so I can only suspect a lot of experimentation and setbacks. It's why you never give a release date unless you are confident to finish it till then. TW are their own publisher so they have no one breathing down their necks except themselves. I can only imagine what would have been different if they had an actual publisher, that brought in money but also had expectations set for the release. If they had to work till a fixed release date (which likely would have been some years ago), I assume we might have gotten something vastly different than today, maybe better, maybe worse. Or maybe nothing. Plenty of studios go the way of the dodo or get bought up if they cannot deliver.
Having the option to stay independent long enough to develop and experiment freely till you get where you want to be is a luxury.
I agree with alpha and beta testing and if there would have been an option to do so for Bannerlord then I would have welcomed that. I can only speculate that TW finally needed some money and going early access was the most sensible choice. Get money, get feedback, get bug reports.
I am not saying people should stop offering critique and feedback because it is early access. Getting bugs and crashes or encountering design choices that you find weird or bad are all valid complaints. But I think your expectations should not be to get a perfect game for early access. The expectation should be that your feedback gets considered and used to improve the game. I think it is bad that the current state of Bannerlord has so many issues. But I also think it is great that TW is immediately on it to fix those things. I do not support all design choices and I am curious to see if they get improved but other things are already looking good. I do not feel betrayed in my expectations when I bought into the early access. Maybe others are because of different expectations. And this is perfectly fine, really. But this is a risk that you have to take if you buy into early access. If you do not trust TW to change the game for the better, you should consider refunding as long as you can and wait till you feel comfortable to buy the game. The only other option is to trust, offer feedback and wait if the game improves for you. If we would have not gotten an early access option I would have been fine with waiting even longer if this instead had resulted in a working finished game. Not sure if I would have like that game then, that would have been for alternate reality me to decide.
The me right now at least is happy to play the current state and see if I like it and also see if I or rather we as a community can get this game to the point where as many of us as possible are happy with the outcome.
But of course, opinions differ and this is a discussion after all. It is why I offer my own input about this topic and see what others have to say. I only find it worrying that people often get so over zealous with this.
And F76 would have gotten the same critique no matter if EA or not. What matters is, that you address the issues your buyers have with the game, this is valid at all times, no matter if EA, alpha, beta or full release. If F76 would have gone with an EA release, promising to consider the players feedback and still would have managed to produce the same outcome what it became upon its release. Now that would have been a reason to get the pitchforks out immediately.