Yeah, I don't expect them to redo all the armors and weapons to fit correctly to their time period, it's far too late for that. It just seems like every game, movie, tv show etc has descended into adding more and more fantasy elements. I really wish they went the other direction and I had huge hopes for Bannerlord a long time ago on this. I still got my money's worth, and mods can fix most of this in time. I just hope they fix this for new game titles.
They're allowed room for mixing inspiration on factions. It's really just strange to see such heavy armors for me, given the timeline parallels. Most stuff didn't feel super out of place for Warband. It said the year was around 1256, but the armors all felt more 1300 in reality. But that applied to everyone equally, so it didn't break my immersion since everyone was at around the same technological level. But with Bannerlord is all over the place, and with some very silly fantasy stuff that's just not realistic.
They could just make it so you can't Smith something above 10 points of your skill level. That way you can still push the envelope to level up but it wouldn't be cheating. I like the idea of getting rid of unlocks.
I just tried it. It doesn't affect the unlock rate. Might as well get the skill for my character.