I have seen my companions level their non combat skills when put in charge of their own party or trade caravan, it is painfully slow. I would really like to see the companions level their support skills much faster than what I am seeing. I had one set to me my surgeon and after many dozens of deaths they got their skill to level 5.... yaaay.
I started rolling out a few sieges finally, and other than the glacial skill rate I am really digging their new siege and army system. It actually got my blood pumping to see catapults lobbing rocks at my army!
I think a lot of the perks just need to be turned up to feel like it is an actual, you know, perk. %4 to melee damage? that is just silly.%1 to movement speed, lame. Either they change it, or they make it available for the modding community to tinker with it, that way someone will make the system more engaging that what it is right now.
Attributes should bring a bulk of stats with them because right now it is far and few between when you get them and you are going to be hard pressed to ever max out 2 or more stats. If you are a bruiser that wants to go into the front line, Vigor and endurance should be your focus for raw power and the endurance to take more than a few hits. Want to be the bowman, Control and Cunning should be the focus for pinpoint shots and a higher situational awareness (I would actually kill to see a shot lead indicator at higher skill levels.). God forbid the gameplay caters to the Leader types were Social and Intelligence is their go to and they have huge armies and have the nobles wrapped around their fingers.
Don't get me wrong, they are mixing things up and trying new stuff, the old system worked, but there was serious limitations and it was hard for people to actually code around that old system. Only a handful of mods actually tinkered with it and most of them were just plain stuck with it.
Lets not all forget that pathfinding could only speed up your army so much before it became a sluggish blob of go nowhere fast.