Precisely.
And oh, can it be so incredibly boring to be an landless knight (or minor lord) beneath the unforgiving heel of stagnant nobility. Even worse if the realm's not exactly a hotbed of RP, or the RP's exclude players who aren't part of a certain clique/faith/guild/faction.
Game might be called BattleMaster, but most players ain't here for the battles. They're neither deep nor dynamic enough to offer much entertainment outside of grandiose genocide of the intercontinental multi-national clusterfluke variety, and only then for the political schism, profitable looting, and the homicidal glee of conquering armies the world over. Especially so when PvE. For example, I keep a meticulous tally of every noble injured in battle, and take great pride in putting bureaucrats out of commission to the misfortune of the affected realms.
As the not so unspoken rule dictates, everything offered is an opportunity to generate a story. Roleplay. Interaction. A legacy worthy of memory.
Hell, I feel that religion, guilds, adventurers, gov't titles, artifacts, assassinations, gloriously heroic battlefield deaths, and other such facets add far more enjoyment and continuity to BM.
Rising through the ranks from nobody to demi-god, clawing our way up the ladder of power and prestige, throwing the weight of our influence around like a set of brass balls hanging proudly before our necks, and eventually hanging from those very same balls like some improvised noose dipped in liquid irony... This game's more Master than Battle, and that's what breathes life into the community. At its core, BM caters to the oh-so-Human seed of unchecked ambition whose fruit we can't exactly harvest in real life.
!@#$, where else can I be a Sumerian Death-Cultist?
...Though giving knights something else to do beside the repetitious massacre of expensive units always proves a worthwhile incentive.
Jus' sayin'
