I've played all the TW series and I manage all my cities/castles and play any battle with over 500 men on each side (or there abouts) or if I really think I need to play the battle to get a correct result (if I know I can win but the autoresolve may not do so). I only do this as a time saver rather than not wanting to play a specific battle.

And as there are the two elements of real time tactical battles with all the preperation for these battles done in the turn based campaign I find that there will be points when I 'steal a march' on the AI and points where the AI does so to me. I find it more enjoyable that way.