True, but in my inf perspective that guy who's too afraid to charge us guys hanging in the back, and is too frightened to engage our cav is extremely annoying. He's not getting kills or doing damage, but he's still a threat and we just want him dead so we can move on. If he's keeping 2 archers a hoplite and a thrower out of the main mob, he's being effective. Probably more effective than if he actually tried something, because, as you say, he's probably noob and has a big target on his forehead.
Truth is I usually get impatient with those 'outside the circle' dancers, and just try catch up with the pub mob. And then, when I get horse bumped to death (cuz this guy can't aim a lance) I run to the forums and write a 'nerf cav' thread.
Oh, but I lost my train of thought thinking of your random noobs.
I was thinking if you have a proper cav fight, why not do it where you have some archers, hoplites and throwers? Just like smart inf try to fight in areas with archer support, smart cav fight around some ground support. I have no problem being horse bumped by friendly cav, cuz I know how hard it is to focus on where you're going while your engaging enemy cav. The thing is that it's just as hard for the enemy to concentrate, but the difference is I'm gonna throw a jarid in his face before he horse bumps me... or a hoplite will bring him to a full stop so you can lance him, or the archer will prick him full of holes.
I guess the obvious thing is that you're better off surrounded by friends than by enemies. Once the enemy cav is neutralized, then you can be the lone 'Rambo'. All of us ground troop hate that when we know our cav is all gone but there's a few enemy cav popping in and out. Odds are I'm so worried about cav that a 2 hander will jump out of the shadows and 1 hit me.
So I say, bitch about cav as much as you want, they sure make the game a lot more interesting. Not archers though. Took a body shot with light kuyak today. If it wasn't for the stun I wouldn't have noticed my 4% health drop.