Something most people forget, xbows tend to lose significant damage when raining, as well as shooting at length. Anything beyond mid range and the xbow will hit you like a wet noodle especially if raining.
Another thing most people forget, if you have horse, your slots should be at least doubled, as 8 not 4. But of course, it should take a little longer time when you take weapons from horse.
Crossbow is powerful, because in reality it is powerful. Same thing for horse. But most people in game want some kind of balance to remove the powerful things, not reality.
On the other hand, the upkeep system already gave the balance. But it seems that lots of people forget the upkeep system and only look at which is too powerful. When you get hit by powerful things, don’t forget that they have to pay more upkeep on that. For example, this time changing light crossbow to 2 slots just destroyed the build of sword-shield horse crossbowman. But do people know, for a reasonable sword-shield horse crossbowman, it needs at least 4000 gold for upkeep. As this amount of upkeep, it is generally not possible to earn gold, but only to lose gold. I cannot understand why to nerf light crossbow for horse crossbowman, as upkeep already gave the balance.