I used to think like this, then I actually played the game with purpose and had a think about what the game mechanics were trying to get me to do, and now I can't get enough of it.
Of course if you just play kenshi the boring way and mine until you get a base then it's going to be boring, but the mechanics strongly discourage you from doing that by making it slow and uninteresting. Just grinding for mining skips the majority of what makes Kenshi special. I blame youtubers for this, most of them aren't very good at the game and never bother to learn, so they just mine for 4 hours.
What really separates Kenshi from bannerlord is that the mechanics are seamlessly integrated with each other. You can frictionlessly slide between thievery, stealth, base building, trading, running, ranged combat and melee combat, and in the midgame you'll be doing all of these at the same time as if they were a single action.
Here are some playthrough ideas I thought of, tried, and had a tonne of fun with:
1. Started a popular skimmer meat griller bar in Heft which was actually a front for capturing and selling slaves, starting fights with traders, and stealing from other shops.
2. Trained as a martial artist and went one a one-woman terrorist rampage across the Holy Nation, wiping out entire villages with my fists, and then hiding on the roofs if patrols came by. I eventually managed to kidnap the holy phoenix himself.
3. Got some of my best martial artists sent to Rebirth where they broke out at night, knocked out most of the guards and hid their armour and weapons. Then I sent an actual army there and wiped the floor with a bunch of confused naked guys who were already having trouble keeping the slaves under control.
4. Allied to the UC, then started beating up slavers in public. The UC samurai had to help me, and eventually a civil war broke out between slavers and the UC. I did the same in the slave mines and camps, effectively abolishing slavery in the Empire.
There is nothing close to this which you can do in bannerlord. Currently the full extent of it is the equivalent of mining until you get a base. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, I mean the focus of MnB is more on active combat and larger strategy, but the above reasons are why people compare Kenshi to bannerlord a lot, and why that game has much better design than MnB ever has.
So, you
1: Started a Small base /Shop and fought a Faction.
2: Made 100 Stat Woman and fought a faction.
3: Made an Army, fought a faction.
4: Allied a Faction and fought a faction.
You used combat mechanics, Trading mechanics, and stealth mechanics. The rest was entirely role play on your part. Again I am not bashing Kenshi, by any means, but the majority of what you described can be boiled down to those very few mechanics.
Combat whether ranged or melee doesn't matter it's all RNG. Some micro involved if you really get into it.
Stealth and stealing is again, toggling a button, and RNG. With some active moving around (Until you get to 50+ and then you are just invisible in broad daylight basically) and stealing is literally just clicking and RNG.
All Kenshi does better, is it's got a few more toys to play with, a couple more mechanics tacked on, but it's also had tons of community support, including just outright integrating community mods into its core game, among a longer development time where players have had their hands on it.
I love Kenshi, it is an exceptionally fun sandbox - for those with imagination. If one is being hyper critical however, the mechanics are not "Deep" unless you count the combat calculations. Which is more math/code side than gameplay side.
The options are pretty much, Build, Fight, Wander, Trade. You are limited with out mods, in what is tradable for profit, and the Smuggling mechanic in game actually doesn't function properly with out mods. There's a reason there are entire overhaul mods for trading and fixing the economy. The combat, the Diplomacy and World state. To allow players to engage in slavery, rather than just be a victim of it. Running your own shop (with out mods) is almost pointless, as the NPCS can only buy a handful of items, and rarely enough coin to get by on the shop alone.
The whole "Bannerlord will suck cause the modders have to fix it! Kenshi is better!" doesn't really fly -- because modders fixed a lot of Kenshi too, and then the Devs asked if they could integrate the work. The Kenshi devs recently announced Kenshi 2 was in progress, and even admitted that Kenshi itself was unfinished, but they had done (and learned) all they had wanted to do, and were setting out on Kenshi 2, and that modders have already fixed a lot of the things they themselves had meant to.
For reference, I've done a Swamp ninja cult, A Shek Wastelander playthrough, a Rebel Farmer faction in the UC deserts, a Holy Nation Crusade, a UC Samurai, a wandering Mercenary group, and dozens of other play throughs. I have probably 150+ unique characters I've created through stories / events I happened upon in game. So I've played the hell out of the game.
Again, love Kenshi, but its really not as "Deep" as people claim mechanically. It's a Sandbox with some fun props and toys, that players can make stories with in a mostly Static world unless the player kills certain NPCs and changes world states. An just an interesting enough story, with enough left out to make the player want to explore.
It definitely isn't for everyone, but I think a lot of the criticism comes from people who were expecting a way more straightforwardly modern open world game, with static mechanics, a completely filled out map, and static quests and all that crap. Someone coming from the Witcher 3 or Skyrim or especially Mount and Blade is going to have a kind of whiplash playing it. I certainly did.
I think the more or less barren map is a genius decision because while it immediately alienates a lot of people, it forces you to figure out how to make your own fun from the mechanics rather than wandering around looking for "content" like in other games.
This is ironically exactly what people were saying about Bannerlord at the EA release, is that it was empty, and the :"Fan boys" were saying "You need to make your own story! Its a Sand box! Its Great!"
A Sandbox is ultimately a Setting, for a player to create a Choose your own adventure. Kenshi provided a Good world, and some decent toys.
In comparison, Bannerlord has provided a Good world, some Okay toys, and just enough of a story to make you interested. (Hence many people tossing 1000 hours into the EA alone).
I am optimistic that Bannerlord will end up in a better state, by release. How much better? Cant say. It will be fixed, overhauled and rehashed by modders though, just as Kenshi has been.
And yes -- If you haven't picked up Kenshi, I would definitely say it's worth a look. For those curious.