i agree with a lot of that and something particular was how you mentioned cav's inability to deal with archers
--- cavs inability to deal with archers --- like really? cavalry in pretty much all medieval video games is used to attack light infantry and archers. while i know cRPG isn't total war attila or whatever, the point remains that archers have far to much power over cavalry
specifics: my +3 destrier can easily get 1 shot by str archers and heavyxbow/arbs if im charging them. it's really ridiculous how weak and non-durable all horses apart from like the plated charger really are. as if cavalry doesn't have enough trouble dealing with any infantryman with half a brain on how to counter cav, they can't even pick of the enemies holding bows and crossbows.
secondly, when you close the distance on an archer while charging them and you miss your swing or get shot/interrupted, you have two choices: keep riding past and hope they dont shoot you and finish you/your horse off, or you can stop your horse and try to melee them/dismount. if you dismount, they run away. you can't catch them since you probably don't have much athletics. you try to melee them off of horseback and they just circle your horse and stay in your melee "blind spots" where you can't hit them. the turn rate on horses is atrocious. a fully stopped horse should be able to turn very quickly. horses should only be affected by their maneuver statistic at higher speeds. it just makes no sense that an archer can outcircle your horses turnrate
To quote myself
Tbh the ability to twirl and change direction with an arrow drawn makes it difficult for even cav to take out a decent archer, ducking, changing direction, twirling, all while drawing and firing arrows. Even worse when any kind of object is present for the archer to twirl around firing arrows, cav stand little chance at taking out what should be their easiest targets in many scenarios, it's only bad unaware archers that get back stabbed without reaction. Sadly that is something that extends to the engine and game itself, it would be difficult to balance without butchering archers.
The fact they can do all that while drawing and firing arrows is what makes it absolute cancer, like you say, Cavalry really are supposed to counter ranged at close range, but it just doesn't work well because of the game itself, but also because how archers can twirl and move into your blind spots, all while drawing and firing arrows. How we combat this without ruining ranged I don't know, but HA was nerfed into the ground and I still play my HA along with several other players, so I don't see why foot archery can't be nerfed a bit too. Throwers are another story and I am not actually completely against them being able to maneuver so well, it makes more sense when considering the action of holding and throwing weapons compared to holding and firing arrows from a bow, even though I think throwing knives are cancer aimbot stuff lol.
It's a tough scenario but there are several options and I think the team could try them out even just temporarily to get feedback.