I feel the same way, and frequently have more than 500k florins without any problems. 500k AND three or four rampaging armies is just so mind numbingly easy! You can build in every city, in every turn, as soon as a construction is complete or a city is ready to upgrade I can do it, and at the same time recruit. it's sick.
Then I tried The Long Road! I can build in two or perhaps three cities per turn if i don't recruit at all! I REALLY have to choose when to upgrade a city since it costs more than I make per turn, and I can't have two full stacks walking around while I do it. Nothing but militia in my settlements or I'd be ruined. Finally a little challenge in the campaign. Because my concentration of my forces at points of conflict, half my empire is wide-open to attack and I'd have little chance to defend against a surprise attack from my thus far loyal allies. I've actually lost settlements in my TLR campaigns! That i tried not to lose! That's unheard of!