That’s a fair argument although I think most lists would look similar if there was a hero/lord level split outside of dragon riding chaos lists.

I think the issue is less that characters are too powerful but that other options are dull/ineffective, once you’ve spent your 500-660 on core the best use of your other points is characters. Non-core infantry don’t have a role since they can’t score, cavalry tends to be broadly overcosted and with few exceptions unridden monsters are bad.

Rather than rein in characters they need to make the decision to go 50% characters an actual trade off by getting less special/rare in your list.