That sounds about right. I play modded with unlimited workshops, but with troop recruitment and wages being much much higher. It really draws out early and mid game, but makes it so much more rewarding when you get your first fief and can have a true army of high tier troops.Most I had was 3, maybe more was allowed on high clan levels, but at this point workshops meager income was not relevant anymore.
I didn't like how in vanilla, that if you could score big one time, you could easily fund a small to mid size elite army. At that point you just walk around beating everyone up while slowly getting bigger and bigger.