Battle of the Celestial Gates

elizbar1967
Seven starting heroes? Well... with all due respect, that's too much. Three would be enough. But no more.
I agree!!!
MasteR
The extra heroes can be put in shrines; there are many on the map. They won't interfere as errand runners.
Sorry, but I disagree! What's the point of all that micromanagement hassle? Especially when you don't even know who will be in the final lineup?
The pointless bots need to be cut down.

If the map were isolated from everything else, then yes. But it's integrated into a specific storyline, and all these heroes are essential to the plot. I can't just take one and discard him ("Hey, Faidaen, you're useless, so get out of here" :) ).
Hiring secondary heroes is disabled (except for one), and there's plenty of space on the map. You'll often need to run around delivering troops, collecting a lot of resources, and making sorties to gather loot, so someone needs to do that. Each of them has a small, but free, starting army. You can give the less useful ones control of the treasury or good luck on their journeys. You don't have to collect stat boosters; it will just be easier in the end.

In general, there are some positive aspects, and I don't see this as a big problem.