I think the paper horses we are forced to use is part of the problem. High tier horses can basically ignore arrows, and only worry about throwing lances, jarids and crossbows. although eventually when people retired every week (constantly getting stronger) and horses remained the same, we started having people one shotting plated chargers at generation 8. Thankfully retiring is fixed.
A few shields up armoured horses crashing into the enemies archer lines, either from the front or back, provides just the amount of cover and distraction for the rest of the team to advance, thus cutting short the missile duel. You can even die in silly ways before reaching that line, but the armoured horse is going to hurt a lot of people with charge damage, like they should, and disrupt a lot of people's aim. Not a good idea to try if enemy light cav were properly screening the lines, but the heavy cav charge did quicken up a lot of ranged duels.
Don't even think about approaching the crossbows these days the paper horses. Even the nerfed bows are going to hurt. Don't even mention the throwing situation. Dodge? You can dodge 1 or 2, but can you dodge 5+ missiles properly spaced out?