Yep, I totally concur with your statements. Both in terms of the appeal of Bannerlord and the ways Warband handled getting jumped.
Bannerlord's loads of fun for me as both a role-playing game and a unique generational/dynastic game. It was extremely gratifying when I had my first child and then, later, died and played on as her for the second generation of my playthrough. It was really profound to look back on what had happened over the course of my playthrough and see all the faces of those I had known, those that had died, those who still lived, and the new generation coming up to become the leaders and movers of the world.
I'm curious how the fog-of-war on Encyclopedia info will affect gameplay since I'll miss being able to check out the new monarch of a country and see how they got there. I suppose it'll just pay to talk to everybody you meet at least once. I certainly enjoyed handling the increasing difficulty of managing an increasingly wide-spread country and trying to expand without contracting. A little trick I used for dealing with enemies who could outrun me was to wait for them to try to raid a village and then just jump them while they're vulnerable, for example. Diplomacy's simple but plenty tough and fun for me to deal with. I'm not sure how TaleWorlds can expand upon it while still keeping the core challenge. For example, if I could cement long-term alliances, what's stopping me from doing what I do in most strategy games (ally with everybody I'm not fighting, and then fight my allies one at a time without fear of dealing with them as a coalition)? And if they're too hard to establish or too unreliable, they practically don't exist. As it stands, coalitions naturally occur as a result of one kingdom (usually one too big) getting ganged up on, while alliances and interventions naturally occur when two kingdoms share a common enemy and don't fight each other. The lack of formality in these things does stir me and keep me tense. As long as the foundational A.I. is solid enough, I think it will continue to work well and could become better with smarter tinkering.