it means what it says
thrusting is not a part of taleworlds vision so they patched it globally and formation combat is not a thing taleworlds want to see
the "fight" you see in siege's flag G aka the last flag is the intended design, it demonstrated how taleworlds think mass combat should go
i thought you were talking about spears now having that new deadly up thrust;
siege, tdm and any other infinite lives mode isnt something i focus too much attention on bc i like battle mode and think that when that mode comes out we will see better combat rather then heavy cav spam
i do not know how mass battle combat will go, but the cav meta that exist on siege only works bc players have infinite lives IMO
i have noticed that with the new spear up thrust mechanic you can attack players in more positions then you could have with the down thrust only,
for example in a 2 v 1 where the 2 players have spears vs 1 other player the 2 players can attack the 1 player at the same time from any position (even when you would position yourself in-front of 1 player so that his partner was directly behind him so he wouldnt usually be able to attack you if not for the new feature of up-thrust with spears)
i would argue that, with this new up-thrust mechanic in spears, group combat is more important bc players are less likely to be able to win 2v1 scenarios if the opponent has a spear
i think when battle mode comes out we will see group spear formations (assuming they reduced arrow damage against heavy armor)
but as someone who fights 2v1s quite often,
spears having an upthrust makes group combat very effective,
i do not even fight groups of 2 if 1 has a spear