One thing that helped me stay into the game with over 2,000 hours into it, it that I like to do a lot of different things. Whether it's fighting, trading, smithing. Also when it comes to a game, make a different way to do it, horse archer, foot soldier, only use bandit troops, help one nation, like sturgians take over the world, think of a new way to play the game. If you are into a lot of things then you can still enjoy the game in early access. For me being on beta branch this is the biggest downfall, when you know a branch is soon and don't want to start a new campaign, the waiting sucks.
Not a lot of people trade, I find it really fun and if you want to learn, I got a series and tutorials to teach you everything, to me it is fun, others might not and that is cool and what is great about Bannerlord, there are a lot of things you can do differently and you really think about it.