User blog comment:Windyplains/A Troopless Tree System/@comment-122.106.108.81-20140127070816

This system discourages active battle. Without having troops to upgade, the gain of battle is simply money/renown, but considering there's alternative paths to both, and that a battle can always claim a few very expensive lives just with a stray arrow or two...

You justify losing some high-tier troops in an epic battle by upgrading a large number low-tier troops experience, and the money gained either narrows the loss, or makes it a small gain.

In making experience irrelevant aside from the player character, there's a certain "what's the point?" to battles. You could always skip straight past that slightly risky engagement and go for something risk-averse. This puts the emphasis in the non-combat aspects of M&B (trade. diplomacy, tournaments), and I don't know many people who'd argue that's M&B's strong suit -- mods or not.