I do suppose that these issues will be refined in later updates (I hope), but my current outlook on 1.5.3 from a balancing standpoint are poor.

While i do appreciate the new features and content overall, it became overshadowed by how some factions and units got buffed while some remain the same as in 1.4.6, which creates a huge power gap.

To each their own, but here are the problems i´ve encounter during my three first campaigns in 1.5.3:

1, "[Gameplay Changes] Balancing, longbows and bows missile speed is now directly related to their damage. Low damage means low missile speed, high damage means high missile speed"
The problem with that is that most mid-tier enemies now shoot ridiculously fast, so you have situations where a bunch of Tolranian Archers or Valahir Bogirre can stunlock you, heck, trying to fight them with infantry seem totally useless unless you can close the distance just because how fast they shoot now.

2, Piercing damage for arrows/bolts have been increased across the board, but not for melee weapons. As stated above, since even mid-tier archers shoot faster, trying to fight archer heavy factions is significantly harder, though not in a genuine way, its more akin to "lets buff the numbers just to make it artificially difficult"

3, Armor have become totally useless. I was playing as an Giant for Drachen and was fighting Tolrania, but was quickly two shotted when trying to flank around and attack the archers. (granted, i didnt have the best armor "Lesser sut Cheiften armor" ) but since i went down way quicker than in 1.4.6, i became curious on how far i could take it. So i activated CheatMenu and gave myself the best possible armor for giants "Bakhal Warmonger Plate" then i went to Dwallmor and made it "Thick" so in total it gave me 75 body armor. Guess what? That didnt help me in any way. I fought an Tolranian army later and this time i was "four-shotted" instead? Seriously, this is the one part that really irks me. The only faction that actually got buffed because of that are the Dwarves because of their racial ability.

4, Damages types does not seem to matter anymore?. I fought the Grazir worshippers and their knights with swords could still hurt me even with the Warmonger plate. Like, i´d expect piercing or blunt to be able to hurt me with that type of armor, but apparently not.

5, Drachen took the shortest straw. Their Kaiserliche Drachen Scharfschutze shoot slower than in 1.4.6, while Maccavia, Tolrania and Valahir (based on my three campaigns) have all recieved buffs to their infantry and archers. For instance, normally you could fight the Sut giants on even ground as their infantry would be weak to arrow fire. Now all it does is tickle them as they charge across the battlefield and smash the weak drachen infantry to pieces, dont even get me started on trying to besiege Sut itself.

6, Its harder to get fiefs overall. In my first campaign, i managed to get a 100 to 100 relation with Drachen and an average score of 20+ or 30+ with the various vassals. Yet all i had was my village. Out of curiosity i tried cheating, so i took Arendal, Galwe, Jurle and Yorid castle, and one after the other (As i besieged them after being denied ownership) i was still constantly denied a fief. Dont get me wrong, you couldn´t just get a fief in 1.4.6 easily either, but mayhapp in your second war as relations between lords increased? I dunno.

7, (I am a tad unsure about this one and i only put it here in hopes of getting it cleared up) Having played my three campaigns, there were moments when i had troops from a different faction (say, Tolrania) and they would "act" weaker then if a real Tolranian Lord would be using them. Like, i had my army of 133 consist of 30 Sut chieften guards and 15 Bakhal Warriors, and the remainder various troops, and when i fought against a Tolranian lord, his infantry decimated my front lines (Sure i still won the battle but recieved many wounded). But Drachen later declared on the Sut giants and i attacked one of their stray parties. Now all of a sudden the giant troops were really good, even though the Sut lord used the same giant troops as me, and i promptly lost that one.

I feel like 1.5.3 is a diamond in the rough, but the changes from 1.4.6 are way too overtuned, and to be blunt, i cant say i´ve had as much fun with it as with 1.4.6, despite it lacking in many features. I guess what i´m trying to say is that It just feels so unrewarding to play.