They said in interviews that MP was created because it was strongly requested by the community, and I'm pretty sure they prioritised player feedback during development too. That had to have made some headway for the series, in addition to all of the other support by the community.
lol that's very true, I was one of those people. I should know better. But still, nobody asked for M&B. They had an idea for a game and they designed and made it.
I can imagine a scenario where when they were designing M&B if players had early access and people complained about directional blocking. "That's not what we want! We want a medieval Counter Strike". The difference is people had no expectations, they played the game and enjoyed it for what it was.
If Bannerlord came out in 2010 and the sequel released now had Warband combat, i'm sure the people who spent 10 years playing BL would be furious.
And again, i'm not saying there aren't good criticisms to be made, or that the game shouldn't change, or that the game is perfect or anything like that, just trying to offer some perspective and hopefully encourage people to be more productive with their criticism, as I believe that's the best way to create positive change.