[Wall of text. Sorry. It's a fucking great read though so don't be scared ]
I'm sorry, but you guys are simply wrong. You're outsiders looking in through a lens, and not seeing what is there.
I'm good at native, i've played thousands of hours with it, played hundreds of clan matches etc, and I have also played thousands of hours of cRPG, so I think I can give you some perspective on this.
In native, every single infantryman should either be carrying a throwing weapon, or a spear. In native, the game is balanced so that archers (less so much crossbowmen), get very gimped armour, and have very low hit points.
2 Javelins, 3 at max, is easily enough to kill an archer. 2 throwing axes certainly will.
The throwing is much more accurate, faster reloading, and faster missile speed, in native, than it is in cRPG.
Archers don't get shields. 3 infantrymen, versus 3 archers, at medium range, will the majority of the time, beat the 3 archers (if the infantry and the archers are of equal skill level, and none are novices).
Shields, in native (the meta shield is always the t3 shield, no matter the faction), can absorb huge amounts of arrows and/or crossbow bolts. Shields, in native, have huge sideways ranged coverage. If you're being shot, either your team is already losing hard, or you're doing something wrong.
Lastly, archers are incredibly bad in melee in native. Not only are their weapons and armours worse, they are slower, they have significantly less power strike, and their weapon proficiencies are frankly pathetic. A common meta for good players to beat archers as infantry in native (if you have ~~35+ armour), is to simply spam and let the archer's swing bounce. Archers are honestly awful in melee combat in native.
Archery in native not this overpowered beast that so many cRPG players seem to think it is, it really isn't. I understand how after palying cRPG and then going to native you could get that impression; it's an easy view to get, you just need to look a little deeper.