I guess it's a question of what design the devs want for their game. If it should look rather realistic, banner restrictions indeed are the right way.
And I guess they do want to go that way, because they also removed things like jumpshots, boulder on a stick, looney toons axe, lance of compensation, wide lancing angles, fast turn speed for long or heavy weapons, pink hair, dresses on men, etc...
I don't want to say if I think this is good or bad (as I honestly don't know, I like realism, but I also do like fun
), but if the devs decided to go that way there is little you can do about. It's a matter of taste, and there is no way you can convince someone with good arguments.
It's like the "No Roman, no Japanese, no gunpowder"-stuff. You won't be able to change it.
But a statement from the devs in which direction the design is meant to go would be nice. But I think somewhere chadz wrote something along the lines of "As much of a game as needed, as realistic as possible"... but I could remember wrong, though...
