I'm not exactly sure what we're missing when you're just General vs Marshal in terms of info. My char Garas on EC has been General, but not Marshal, for quite a long while now and I've never felt like I was missing something tbh.
Under 'information' the General has an option to 'view armies' which gives you a detailed overview of the different units, how strong they are, where they are, if they're stationary/traveling/wounded etc. I'm not sure what we're missing considering the first point which was raised here.
In many realms General and Marshal of the main army are the same people, but if you're not I do not feel as if you're missing out a lot. There are several different scenarios in which your General is not a marshal and different types of roles emerge from that. I would see no reason why we would ever want to merge them, but I'm not missing anything either. So if he/she could clarify a bit more specifically what is missing?
As to the second point, I disagree entirely. The fact that the army sposor can dictate the marshal and not the General is actually an amazing feature. Most of the time, sponsors just appoint who the hell the General wants, but I've seen cases where sponsors go against the General and you actually get some action because of it within the realm. In those cases it's often tied to one political camp or another etc, which makes for some awesome experiences.
The General is probably the most powerful and influentual character in many realms, but its power does not necessarily come from the game mechanic features themselves. The need of a good general is always high in BM and if you have one, you can often gain quite some support and followers to a point where you can even disregard the ruler often.
Also never underestimate the important of assigning and removing militia, especially in 1 situation 'rebellions'. Many, if not most succesful rebellions are supported or led by the General as far as I've seen and that's because the General can first of all give orders for a march, but keep enough rebels in the capital to 'refit'. Secondly the general can dismantle all the militia in the capital and make it a walk in the park for the rebels to take controll, especially if the main army is away.
