Upkeep seems fine for me, my inventory states mine is "1,481 gold Upkeep (max)" and I seem to be able to do pretty well in game and earn plenty of gold. I guess that's because I use a selection of gear that isn't all expensive and carry just military hammer and shield. You're just very unlucky if your xbow is breaking every round to be honest.
When I played HA + HA/1h hybrid it used to cost me a lot of gold, so occasionally I would just not use my horse and/or use shitter equipment overall, maybe try using a cheaper xbow, or none at all, to earn some gold back.
EDIT: Or like Tibe has mentioned, alts are good for money making if you don't mind losing the exp time, you can make builds that take advantage of cheaper equipment and still be effective, for instance when I played polearm if I wanted to go cheap I'd take lighter armour with just a bamboo spear to poke cavs and players.