It wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the arbitrary restriction on skill learning rates that force players to actively avoid collecting experience in skills they don't need. You just look at them and think "what kind of moron skilled them up this way". Skill learning rate should simply be the same whether the character is level 1 or 30, full stop. But that's a different topic entirely.
Generally speaking nobles receive rigorous weapons training from birth, and therefore can be expected to use a variety of melee weapons that are suitable for any given situation. So I can buy that they can use all three melee weapon types; it's Khuzait nobles having crossbow skills that I don't get. Khuzait just don't use crossbows. If a noble has any sort of crossbow training, I'd love to know how they got it, when, and why. I mean, maybe they spent some time at an Empire court as a hostage, so the occasional outlier isn't an issue. (It was quite common to have foreign princes and princesses live at Imperial Roman courts in order to make sure that a peace agreement is actually upheld.)
All that aside - if you aren't able to beat a lord in a tournament, you're doing something wrong. They are more beatable than ever, if anything, since all tournament weapons are treated as blunt now. You used to have to actually use thrusting attacks or land blows to the head to hurt them, and if you glanced off the armor, you would lose half your HP on the backswing. Now armor might as well not be a thing at all, no matter if you're using a sword, an axe, or anything else.