The only factions really affected in a negative way by these changes are the small factions. Big factions take a bit longer to be able to afford plate, but it is just a matter of time. Not a lot of time to be precise.
Small factions however will never be able to afford plates. Neither will they be able to afford proper cav (5 War horses maybe, but they have to last for ages)
Crime is more of a hassle for small factions. If a huge faction loses 100 troops to crime, fuck it, who cares? If a small faction loses 50 troops to crime it is half their army gone pretty much.
But I think a restart would drive even more people away now. Nearly no proper battles have happened yet, and start from scratch again? Would certainly put many people off.
The best thing for strat would be increasing the exp even further.
Because even after the recent increase of like 100% of the base exp etc you still get jack shit.
Make it so current battles give at least 1 mil exp, and proper battles give even more. 250k exp does not attract anybody anymore.