How about you tell me a deeper game than Bannerlord in the same genre/setting.
M&B Warband + Mods.
A M&B Warband redone with the Bannerlord engine would be a deeper and better game.
But that´s the problem, Bannerlord is unique in it´s genre. If you want to play a game like this you have no other choice. Otherwise nobody would care about this game.
Play CK as an islamic state or catholic and tell me both playthroughs were even close to be the same....doesn´t even matter if you play CK2 or CK3.
You don´t have the same options in both playthroughs. The AI won´t do the same stuff in both playthrougs.
Now tell me the difference in Bannerlord if you start as Empire or Khuzait? Will the AI behave different? Will it make any difference at all....
Marry a Sturgian lady as Empire or marry a Khuzait lady as Empire? Will it make a difference?
Does the Bannerlord AI (NPCs) care if you´re married to a Sturgian lady or Empire lady? Does the Bannerlord AI cares about that you´ve crushed like their whole kingdom in open field battles when at war or will they still just try to raid some random villiages as if they do as they can crush you?
I also don´t even believe you that you´ve played a lot of the Paradox games. There is stuff you simply can´t do if you have religion X or whatever. It´s not possible within the game mechanics. There are a lot of different options if your kingdom is a feudal state or barbaric state. So stop please....
I also prefer the Paradox business model:
Release a good core game with working mechanics but bugs and balance issues. Improve it with DLCs and also support mods. Deliver the game you´ve shown in trailers.
Instead of TWs model:
Let your customers pay to test your unfinished game and have mods add the stuff that the community really wants. Release broken (game breaking bugs) updates over and over again. Don´t even care about any balance.
Show stuff in trailers that will never be in the game. Have placeholders in the game that seem to look good but don´t work. Just remove them later.
Both games cost the same!
Bannerlord isn´t a 10-20€ small indie game....it´s a full price paid broken beta with false promises if you´ve seen those trailers years ago with stuff that will never be in the game and bought it day one! They demand full price for this mess! If they would be honest to us (their Steam description still claimes this game will be released within one 1 year right now!) and the price would be 10-20€ I wouldn´t complain at all! Do you think this game is closed to be finished as they claim TODAY according to THEIR steam description.
Imagine you don´t know TW or Warband. Read their Steam description
TODAY! You would expect this game closed to be finished ("around 1 year", release was 30.03.2020). Or you think that around 1 year means like at least 1 year from now on.
That´s what TW is! Paradox never did something like this. That´s Electronic Arts style! "Those aren´t lootboxes, those are surprise mechanics!".
"We said around 1 year, this could also mean like 2-3 years and it´s EA, that´s why´ve removed stuff we hyped you about! It was just a tech demo and scripted, we never said you can really do this stuff!"