The situation is better, but castles are doing better than cities. I have two castles and a city, and each one has only two villages attached, but the castles have gardens so they can hold a larger garrison. Right now, both the castles and the city are +food, but prosperity is still creeping up so I still think it's gonna be a problem, but it just takes longer to become a problem. Maybe it caps or slows down at a certain point, but I'm not there yet.
Everywhere at the start of the game has a poor economy it seems like. Not sure how long that takes to even out, or even if it does. But player owned fiefs should be +food as long as you guard the villages.