Sadly I have to agree and too many people on the thread are trying to find excuses for what's obvious. Good design is good design and bad design is bad design, it's not more complicated than that. Paradox games have a ton of great things about them, multiplayer isn't one of them.
And although comparing Starcraft 2 with CKII might look overboard, it isn't, it doesn't have to be flashy, just work. If you don't find that valid,t here are many games from the 90's that worked very well in multiplayer (Starcraft 1 for starters, Myth which was probably around the same cost), and CKII is from 2012.