I totally agree. I tried to list features that have UI elements in the game, but do nothing. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect that masterwork and legendary items would be in the game considering that they exist in the smithing skill tree. Same for making peace or declaring war using the big "declare war" or "propose peace" buttons that are disabled in the kingdom interface.
Seems unreasonable to ignore the entire questing system. The devs put it in there for a reason, and if there's a balancing issue then they should address it because quests are a pretty cool concept if done well and one that many people enjoy.
It's hard to say how many people it helped, and it could very well have resolved a different bug entirely. I'm sorry the game isn't working for you, but I feel like you are being a bit presumptuous in assuming that the patch didn't do anything. I hope they fix your bug as soon as possible so you can enjoy the game.
I have used this, and it works maybe half of the time that the archers don't fire at will. I also noticed that if I ride ahead of my troops and draw the enemy's fire, my archers will nearly always fire at will by the time I return.