There is a great interview with CEO of robocraft, game that failed because it went a route that Bannerlord is heading for:
"A lot of players who are angry with the way the robocraft went, that we dump down the game mechanics, we dump down the building system. ..., Sadly, our attempt to simplify the building system in attempt to attract new players/keeping players from slipping through our fingers, they did not work, the stats did not improve. So we angried the existing players and did not improve the stats.
...
Perhaps my biggest regrets are maybe if we went back,
we would listen more to dedicated players and less to the short-term new players. And focus on what dedicated players like and exposing more of that and building on that rather than chasing the stats for new players."
The dedicated players gave you a lot of ideas in multiple threads on how to improve the game, you did not seem to listen and decided to go your own route (which could work, but it did not). Maybe it is time to go back to the drawing board?
I have never heard any dedicated players saying, "let's strip down the Warband equipment system and replace it with something else" when the game was "in progress".