I absolutely agree, sadly i don't think this was a mistake, i don't want to go on a long rant here but i am 100% convinced that the game is exactly what upper management envisioned, this is literally what they wanted to make and they made it, the reason why they constantly talked down Warband and said it was "Old and new players don't like it" (i am paraphrasing but they basically stated this sentiment) is because they unironically think Warband was a ancient game and they (the young and charismatic geniuses who knew better) were going to make it better and in their mind making it better meant getting rid of most of Warband and replacing it with fancy marketing talk, buzzwords and charlatans. This game still has potential but not in the hands of this developer.
I am leaving a link to all the times the developer slighted Warband
And that is not even all of them, never forget that time in a games presentation one of the TW representatives said "Warband features are not up to Bannerlord standards"
That was the literal thing they thought, it still is what they think of Warband, and frankly i cannot fathom describing this sentiment as anything other than hubris.