No, snowballing sucks because it means you have to start conquering the world/your own patch of calradia within a certain timeframe if you don't want to face a super powerful faction which already owns most of the map.
It is a Sandbox like Warhammer Total War, Crusader Kings, etc. Maybe Bannerlord is missing some victory conditions easier to achieve than having to conquer all the Empire settlements, but to be honest, all the Sandbox games have the same problem and they are usually boring in late game.
There are tons of sandbox games out there (from smaller studios) that do them properly, with the end game being able to do whatever the player makes of it (ie roleplay, conquering, building, etc...).
True that Total War is probably the 'closest' comparable type of sandbox as BL but at least they have
some alternative victory conditions, campaign objectives, 'Chaos' incursions, town management (actual management strats/builds), etc...; but they also have an 'end'. The campaigns are quite 'similar' but their tactical battles have been refined after this many years where they are quite engaging and unique (ie actually different factions and RP 'diplomatic' importance).
In BL, there's only one thing: build army, take city, vote possession, rinse&repeat. And besides the battles (which are great with some QoL improvements still), a lot of that is just clicking menu buttons. We are also very restricted as a sandbox: cap on companions/parties, cap on workshops, 'unlock' smithing parts (and the re-grind with generation), cap on caravan potential, and so on so there's no other route or option that is allowed for us.
That is not 'good' gameplay, no matter the genre or objective which is why end game is boring right around when you get a town or two.
I personally never enjoyed having to conquer the world in Warband, and I didn't even once in 2K hours played. I cannot see how Aging&Death is making the game worse and lower than Warband, except if you enjoy a lot conquering the whole world, which is still doable in this game. It is harder to conquer thw whole world though, because this game is better balanced and it is not all about getting some Swadian Knights and F1+F3 (Fian Champion and Khan's Guard are pretty damn OP though, but I hope they are going to get balanced eventually).
Aging/Death doesn't make it worse, but it is also completely pointless how it's implemented. Especially if they can just add a menu button to disable such a 'crucial' system in their game; which also shows that they went the easiest route again (no surprise) to essentially just remove/ignore a feature rather than fix/improve it.
Yeah, levelling still has some problems but it is just a 100% balanced issue, and not related to Aging&Death now. Maybe it was the case before, but now it is pretty evident that TW is hearing us about we do not like grinding.
Not just a balance issue, many skills/perks do practically nothing significant (or half the time don't apply) where I don't care if it resets, but also don't care that it doesn't. There's no 'unique' skill/perk where you may want to aim for with one character, then maybe try another build with your child in the next; it's just +2% damage, +5% reload speed, make 2 charcoal from 3 hardwood, +3 hp, +1 vigor, etc...amazing. They added the perk respec'ing recently, but even so, the options I get to pick aren't exactly inspiring; and just another proof they pick the easy route vs fixing.
And your companions that die also reset, especially how they implemented the party roles with the scout, healer, qm, engineer so we all have those '4' committed companions that can
only learn those skills with how the experience gain is done.
TW only has grinding, take that away, game because even more of a shell as they aren't offering alternatives.
Sure, Aging&Death implementation is not great currently, but this feature opens the door for tons of new features and mechanics like seccesion wars, etc. Aging&Death is a pretty complex feature which is not great currently, but I am pretty sure that modders will take huge advantage of it.
So, add another half-baked system with bugs, let the mods try and 'fix' their game...
Lacking diplomacy in this game is not related to Aging&Death feature at all. This is an isolated issue that I hope TW or someone fixs in the future.
They should be, age&death mean succession/feudal inheritance implications which is quite significant in a medieval setting; diplomacy should encompass all facets of the systems/features they've added in or at least be in the background but it seems it was never the case. And it
has to be TW that fixes it again, **** this attitude we've fallen back into relying on mods fixing the game. Or at least be upfront with us saying they're 'done' developing that X/Y/Z system or feature; not this 'we'll bring to the team and discuss, but we won't tell you jack**** on whether there's a solution, roadmap, plan, or if it is even considered an issue to them' (pilums throwable?).
Their game is done, they seem done with the game, they've set their release date, they won't add post-launch (judging based on EA to date).