How exactly is it "way too complex" to click on two or three unit cards, then click on a submenu and select a formation from those I listed above? What exactly is simpler about having to manually drag the lines out yourself whenever you want to overlap different units? This is like saying the group formation menu is "way too complex" and you should have to order your troops into "missile first three lines" one a time.

Furthermore, there's no reason to believe that in in Total War games you're really playing as the general. You can give very specific orders to units nowhere near communicable reach of the general, that couldn't possibly have been discussed ahead of time. If anything, Total War is more like playing the commander of each unit individually, unless in the TW universe they had walkie talkies and satellite map technology in the classical and middle ages.