^I can agree on that point. The games are quite big and CA are good about patching them usually. They were supporting the mess that was Rome 2 for a long ass time. I hope Attila fixes it, but I'm not holding my breath.
I will disagree about the games not having an equal for depth. Compared to Paradox's games (Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis etc), Total War's Grand Strategy aspects look like Fisher Price stuff.
As you said though, they don't offer any kind of real time tactical battles, it's purely concentrated on the grand strategy aspect.
The only game I can think of that did the Total War formula was King Arthur, which actually looked really fun, and was essentially the 'Fantasy Total War' that people were wanting.