Makes as much sense as your "Imperial Guard" character running around on a charger with a shield, nordic champion sword and throwing axes , with a ninja banner. I wouldn't have mentioned this , but you've kind of brought this on yourself.
Or, as much as your character in Druzhina armor, on a Sarranid horse, or Pikes instead of Bamboos, was that what you were trying to say?
I fail to see your point. The game is not a historical simulation nor is it trying to be. But realism is an integral component and like most games tries to mix realism with playability. That's why in Age of Empires castle takes xy seconds to build instead of 15 real-life years. Discarding realism achieves nothing and just introduces more silly items to the game that break immersion.
As you can see, I also choose equipment much like you - whatever resembles the goal equipment the most. Ninja heraldic has cool silver/black look which is what I want, it also has asian letters on it (albeit kanji) which fits more than other icons. Nordic champion sword (which I just bought to test it), if it ever existed was Chinese export anyway - and besides it resembles Chinese jian more than side sword for example. But I don't really use that sword (except on charger), I'm testing Niuweidao as infantry. And I don't see what's wrong with "Charger" - Chinese had heavy cavalry (unlike Japanese which did not ride Cataphracts or anything like it, to my knowledge), and Charger is just a generic name. And if you need throwing axes, here's a nice pair:
http://www.black-ronin.com/chinese_short_weapons.htmlOh, I forgot. Ninjas originate in China anyway, much like many other "Japanese" things, including the metallurgy of famous Japanese swords, a courtesy of exiled Chinese artisans at the time of Mongol conquest.
In short, saying that realism makes no sense is very different from saying that realism should be one important component among others. But if you want to bicker go ahead.