The game simply is not well suited to that Crusader Kings thing at all, at least as it is though. Its very possible to fly through stuff too fast and have a lot done before your kids are even ready to take over.
This
As nice as the "dynasty" mechanics might seem, I don't think anyone really wants to play a campaign so long that their main character dies of old age, their kid takes over, and you have to level up all over again. It *might* work if conquering the map was a truly difficult or borderline impossible task. The real meat of the game should be in trying to maintain a Kingdom. Like you can maybe conquer the map for a brief time while with some expert vassal management, but it should not be something that lasts.
Any Kingdom that gets too big should be prone to splinter apart.
I think TW really should have just focused on improving what they had with Warband. Have characters that are unique, actually interesting and persistent. These generic, cardboard cut-out NPCs really do not do the game any favors. Having any NPCs with actual personalities would do quite a bit for the game. Like a cowardly Lord who will never fight unless they have a numerical advantage and surrenders fairly easily if outmatched. Actual companions, not just these "blank slate" formation captains. Anything that adds dynamism to the game.
Ultimately the game should be focused on 3 things:
Battles, Party Management, Kingdom Management
Anything beyond that should be regarded as side activity at the most
Battles are sound, truthfully only reason folks still play this game is for the spectacle/thrill of battles. This is the absolute core of the game. That said there's still room for improvement here. A lot of balance issues between troops, sieges still feel W.I.P., better troop deployment/orders, etc. This about only thing I can say has really gotten better during EA, though feels like it too way too long. And I'm not sure without RBM it would have gotten this far.
Party Management is lacking. Simple things like "sorting" would do wonders for the player. Nevermind friendly A.I. parties should have a lot more going for them. Like just some basic forms of command "defend this fief", "recruit these units", etc. I think there's way too much focus on trade/economy, which really doesn't add anything to the game. It just wastes both player and development time from the fighting bit for no real reason. It's not like a lack of food variety or armor effects how you recruit units.
Kingdom Management is the real problem. It's a joke actually. Strangely fief management is very detailed though, and with actual cultural effects could literally be it's own strategy game. But the stupid constant non-sense war declarations that just get out of out control once you're doing well. The lack of truces/alliances. There's no diplomacy in this game and nothing is explained to the player in a meaningful, sensible way. You can't have a war game with multiple Kingdoms and not have some rudimentary diplomacy. There's no civil war or in-factions, you just pick a color and that's it. The horrible way Kingdom Policies are voted on too.
Then there's being a monarch. All you do is slap your vassals on the wrists for being idiots. You can't order armies or anything. It's such a meaningless and hollow thing to be a ruler. Supposedly this is the goal of the game, but honestly you aren't missing anything if you never get this far. You are basically just Joe Bowers from Idiocracy.
Too much of this game has been "balanced" around what are effectively incomplete game features
