I'm not shocked this topic is once again gracing these forums, but am a bit surprised it is coming from a player who must have tons of EU4 experience judging by the forum badges you have.
The current Ottomans are probably at their weakest point I have seen them since buying the game somewhere around Art of War. Remember when they started with a CORE on Constantinople? Or before the mission system when they could ally AQ or QQ and not be blocked by missions?
I think any snowball problem is a result of the money changes from 1.25 or whatever and current bugs causing alliances to be useless so despite the Ottomans themselves being in debt, anyone they declare on has paper alliances.
Look, I am not going to make a complaint for the sake of making a complaint.
I'll try and be fair. Yes, I have seen the Ottomans struggle. But I've also seen them go insane. When they do go insane, there seems to be no barrier to how insane they can go.
Let me put it like this, my earlier point stands, English expansion seems largely limited to where they historically expanded (uniting the British isles and colonising in the Americas) and occasionally I've seen them pick off a small Asian nation or two. But they've never gone insane. Furthermore, they often suffer at least two built in mechanics (in the forms of civil wars). Castile, the same. France, the same.
When the Ottomans go nuts, they
really go nuts. In fact, when they go the most nuts is when they focus on Europe and don't bother that much with the Mamluks or anyone else because they conquer high development land and show no opposition.
In my save, they're now bordering my France because they ate North Italy and Switzerland. Does that not sound at least a bit extreme to you? I keep hearing the same regurgitated nonsense like I've never played EU before or read a history book. I
know the Ottomans were strong, I
know you optimally need to eat them early, I
know I need strong allies and to expand elsewhere, but I shouldn't be sharing a border with them as France.
I'm fine with them not being so weak at the start but I am totally not fine with there being seemingly no barriers to how strong they can get.