I tend to agree, and I've objected to previous requests that would allow the northern realms to go pick a fight far away because they just locked themselves in peace for miles around.
However, I think that travel times, refit times (getting to banks to pay one's unit and then returning), equipment wear and other travel expenses already make realms rather ineffective over long distances. I don't think any of this should change. They don't make fighting far away impossible, they just mean you should bring smaller units and expect them to be weaker when they arrive.
On the other hand, morale is dangerous. If it gets too low, your men will abandon you outright. Considering the above issues and what's at stake, it doesn't feel to me like paying 50% more for your unit is providing enough of a reduction to morale loss for distance. And I mean this for all continents. I've never found it to be worth it even for smaller-range wars on other continents.
Long-distance war should be difficult in the sense that it takes forever to send troops, that it costs a lot to do so, and that very little strength arrives in the end. Not in the sense that your troops start deserting you as soon as you arrive to your destination, purely because of the distance.
Then bummer for Astrum. Again, we'll have to find a war closer to home. And Astrum is pretty much in the same corner as Iashalur. Not much difference there.
In five years of playing BM, I have never once seen this restriction coming in to play. On EC, distance from Semall to Sirion is itself 1250 miles.
And how often have you tried to march an army from Semall to Sirion?
When Enweil sent troops against Sint once (minor skirmish), we were getting these penalties. But really, we were only crossing one realm. I always felt like the distance penalties to morale were too great, despite being quite fine with the rest of the restrictions.
