If you wanted, you could change the reload time of missiles in the desc file, i think desc_missiles but that could make certain units overpowered.

As for CA not making ranged as effective as they should be in real life, I think they want to keep the melee brawl goodness of the game as much as they can. Already a volley of high-quality crossbows can decimate charging units up to a certain extent. '

Simply put the game woudlnt be fun nor challenging (passive AI guys?) if we were to play archer duels.