I just started the French campaign for the first time ever, and I can't help noticing several heavy knight classes that are essentially the same:

Chivalric Knights
Noble Knights
Templars or Hospitaliers

I managed to get a St John's chapter house in Paris for some nice early period shock troops and I don't see why I should bother wasting gold by upgrading any stables in my castles to get the other mounted knights. Do they have hidden bonuses?

Hospitalier can upgrade to full plate, making them on par with Chivalric nights while being cheaper to train. I do the same thing in all my NE campaigns - Templars for England(just cause they're traditionally English, nevermind the lack of full plate or health bonus), Knights of Santiago for Spain, etc. They make Chivalric knights pointless unless you've run out of Crusader knights to train, have gold to burn and need to fill out your numbers.

What about Noble Knights? Do they upgrade to Gothic Armor? Do they get an experience bonus with the right stable upgrades?

Lancers seem even better than knights since they're faster and almost equal except for having less armor.

So why all the damn cavalry choices?