Maeleth
Recruit
Workshops are a bit different matter. They do not cost you a follower (who can lead a party, provide a skill bonus or simply fight for you), they cannot be lost unless someone captures a city (a rare occurance if you pick a winning side), and they can be sold back for the same (or even greater) price if player so choses. Caravans were high risk-high reward, with constant wars your liege is waging left and right. Now they are almost guaranteed loss-possibly-no-reward-it-depends-how-lucky-you-are.However they continue making this investment because actually workshops were still good.
Anyway, thank you for your time and your replies. Guess we'll see where this is going to go after extensive feedback from different players.