yes, lots of HA and besides being a pain in the ass they usually get their kills by horse-bumping...
Fact is: while the amount of strength crutchers in heavy armor has not really been affected by upkeep or whatever measures to limit it, archery has been made a lot less effective over time.
The last big hit was the nerfing of loomed arrows - since then there are basically no arrows that deal damage an armored guy would notice.
Mission accomplished.
In addition: upkeep seems to be "tweaked for archers" - I have alts in all classes, some with much more costly gear, no one looses money as my archer main does, the break rate for mw bodkins and mw longbow (esp. on siege) is a joke.
On a constructive note: new high tier bow (or re-vitalized longbow) would be a great idea. Make it high requirement (7pd at least), give it unique arrows, medium missile speed, medium accuracy, and noticable damage. Will say: an effective weapon agains horses and armored people, useless for archer duels and not usable by kiting agi archers.