Thanks for looking.
The only one I disagree with is the “Decrease companion pool”.
I think the available companions needs to increase greatly. Even if most of them start as generic and relatively low skilled (few steps up from a base village recruit).
I think you are 100% right that the companion pool needs to be bigger later in the game and start with a small generic pool with low skills. I should rephrase my "problem." I think the companion pool can be much more organic and can the pool size and companion skill diversity can as well.
For instance: If you play the game as a trader, then more companions that have trader focused skills should be attracted to working with you. Same goes that if you are a trader, battle lord companions will NOT be attracted to work with you and you would have to pay X% more to hire them and your access to them should be harder to come by.