Good tactics always pay off. The existence of good tactics is not an argument for supporting a pointless nerf, however.
Often times infantry can't hit a downed cav that many times if dehorsed properly. I pointed out there are many situations where they are lucky to get one before you can block. I wouldn't call that good tactics, you got dehorsed.
It is also not pointless due to the fact that horses cover your body, now. I would call that a pointless buff.
30% of hp is trivial? Allow me to hit you for 30% in spawn for a few maps?
Yes, it is. If you get dehorsed at full speed, 30% is not much compared to what it probably should be.
If you are lightly armored, you will get 2shot anyways. If you are heavily armored, that's 1 less hit on you. That's equivalent to an infantry getting shot once before engaging with other melee, not a big deal really.
Is picking up another horse something that should be so punished? It's already rather risky as you don't know how much HP the horse has and you risk another round of free hits on the ground if you try to grab one.
I don't think it's risky. It's easy to get dehorsed without punishment if you choose your targets correctly. You shouldn't be rewarded or say no big deal for screwing up and getting your horse killed, especially multiple times, only to summon another 1-2 horses.
Is further punishment really necessary?
"Further" compared to what? Cav have many aspects of their design that prevent them from getting punished for their mistakes (side bump from 0 speed, crashing, jumping(in general) to avoid crashing/attacks, etc.) A lot of that stuff makes cav more interesting, but it's still ridiculous how much zany stuff you can do.
I don't know where this came from. "If you can't beat several people at once, you are a bad player." Please stop spouting nonsense that has no relation to the game balancing discussion.
I tried hard to sound as least condescending as possible, and it's still blown out of proportion. By few people, I REALLY mean a few, 1-2 usually, maybe even 3, mostly consisting of SUPPORT players. If you get dehorsed in front of 3-4+ people, that's just folly on your part (already stated in my post). You make it sound like cav are helpless once dehorsed in front of practically any melee. The pikeman/archer has a disadvantage to you once you take your melee weapon out and must flee from you.
Even if you get dehorsed by an elite 2h or whatever, if they can't kill you before you get up, you still have a decent chance. If you curve away when trying to attack the melee and they only hit your horse, they usually only get 1-2 hits on you. Chances are, you will die anyways. Getting damage when dehorsed helps the support/anti-cav players fight you once you whip out your elite 2 slot dueling weapon.
Getting dehorsed actually punishes the people who dehorsed you if you slide away/your horse covers you, since you have the advantage against those support characters. I never called anyone a bad player, just tried to say that that situation is not really that unfavorable once you get up.
If you get dehorsed by other lancers and don't get killed, you become an anti-cav (hoplite/long stabby polearm), allowing you to get back to your infantry group.