well, the idea was not to depersonalize gold distribution, but to just automatize the most annoying part of it.
army chest has to be filled manually, by army sponsor, and the level of gold he would manage to put in marks level of influence such chest would have. it could not be expected that such funding replaces whole distribution system, ever.
and - if it would be allowed that army sponsor has right to decide on distribution key - for instance key should be honor, prestige, noble's age, time spent in the army... that could even give some flavor to armies.