I think the main debate here is between three different positions, all of them completey agreeable but still different:

1) The game has a wonderful look (true), it's fun anyway for me, I can play it for some hours and have fun even if the battles are so easy to win.

2) There are some bugs but the potential in the game is incredible (true) so just be patient and we'll have a great game in our hands.

3) Damn, I would have liked to struggle in this battle to win not just looking at some stupid horsemen in heavy armor to be decimated by my peasant archers without even raise a lance. It's no fun! Look the crusade won't pass if I place a ship there on the landbridge and the AI won't ever use ships to land in the Holy Land... how can I use a legitimate strategical naval blockade without exploiting it? It's no fun again! Esc-esc-altF4-play something else or watch tv.

I myself usually switches from the 3 above different moods depending of what I would like to play in that moment. Right now I'm experimenting some modifications on the campaign to keep my interest alive because I think and hope the patches will give us a really great game as the potential is enormous.

Still next time I will wait some months before to buy a new game, maybe I could have some bargain discount plus a decent playable game through patches. Lesson learnt.