I have no problem with a focus on the fighting. The game is a sandbox, not an RPG, and the combat system is the core part of the game. RPG elements are auxiliary aspects to that. Thus I see no problem in getting the game's basic elements fixed before moving on to supporting features.
And as has been said above. Warband's greatest strength was its numberless mods. So I think it will be with Bannerlord to fix various itches for RPG, other time periods etc. that people might want.
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@dirtshrimp I actually feel the opposite. The fact that things are grounded in a history and not in random fantasy elements makes the game more immersive to me. And there's plenty of stuff in common with Calradia, its just that Calradia in Warbands has seen he empire collapse and 200 years of change affect it.
But they already had the combat more or less working back in 2016, heck they even had banners! additionally I doubt every single developer was working on the combat aspects, but given the long development time that might have actually been the case.