The "Cry of Horror" ability is weak because it reduces morale, but some creatures have positive morale, so which is better: always dealing double damage or causing enemies to skip their turns? "Spell Penetration" is also a great ability, but mages aren't weak at all.
And imbalance is an inevitable force, a senseless absurdity; the creatures of the Empire aren't that strong...
In general, the poll showed that the best absolute abilities are "True Luck" and "Spell Penetration"; few people choose "Cry of Horror"...
But why are there three of them? Did you buy them in outposts? There's always only one there, and the city has a growth rate of 3 due to the castle (which is built first) and the graveyard; you can't judge the growth rate the way you do.

WoG is more popular than the original, and people are still making mods for it. But how much new content was there?

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In the end, I noticed that you like to compare units in 1v1 battles, so the growth rate definitely doesn't matter then; a Green Dragon will kill a Skeleton for 2.5 times the damage, but a Skeleton will hit a Green Dragon 5-6 times, at least...I won't even mention the Dark Knight and the Fire Elemental...

And also, a SKELETON doesn't cast "Curse" or "Gloom"; it only has upgrades. That's how it becomes equal to a Green Dragon.

Knights don't have "Death Grip," but NEITHER do the Undead! You should compare Paladins to Harbingers; yes, a Harbinger will win in a 1v1, but in other situations...the first Knights will deliver a charge attack (see initiative).

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And regarding the imbalance of creatures at eight levels...There won't be one. Because some will get strong units and have to pay a lot, while others will get weak units, but it won't cost them much.

The races are far from self-sufficient because mods are trying to add old, familiar units from the third game, but for that, they'll have to remove some of the beloved units from the fifth game (see: Ifrits and Cave Demons, Ice Dragons and Arcata Dragons).