I hardly ever notice enemy ranged with my hoplite, shielder or my xbow (arb+2h mace). The only time I notice it is on my 2h because no shield or cav because my horse quickly gets shot down if I'm not careful.
Latvian's server example is poor simply because small servers always attract more ranged than melee. EU4 is frequently filled with a very disproportionate amount of ranged, EU1 isn't so bad and is perfectly manageable. As others have said, I think it would be fine if the balance between the classes was more or less equal.
The other issue is the xbow. I don't understand why it has no requirements. Yeah yeah historically it was easier to use but when has crpg ever been particularly about realism? I've picked up arbalest's in strat and gotten decent numbers of kills with 0 wpf on my horse archer main. The accuracy is far to high and I also think there should be a PD like requirement as with bows. Maybe not as steep as bows, but it should be there because the number of guys lugging around xbows can be staggering sometimes.
Haven't looked through the entire thread but has joker been in yet suggesting a different game mode?