UNIT - Creature Balance + Visual Changes

Well, if that's the case, then why are you so persistently trying to prove something to me, or rather, impose something? If you don't care, why not just leave the topic?

I express my opinion because I have something to say. Consider it the opinion of an expert. Whether you follow this or that advice is entirely up to you. Where am I imposing anything? I'm just pointing out where things are wrong and why.

I'm starting from:

My main goal was to rid the Factions of "favorites" and useless creatures that, in most cases, no one hires.

and I don't see any connection with most of the proposed changes. Take Cerberuses, for example. Are they not in demand with their old stats? Where did you get that information?
90% of what you suggest is just creativity, not work on balance.

Are you serious about melee damage right now?

Absolutely. For a ranged unit, this is usually a secondary factor, but it cannot be completely ignored. If you have two equally strong ranged units in all other respects, but one of them has much stronger melee combat skills (for example, melee combat without a penalty or simply high base damage), then this significantly disrupts the balance.

Rationality, in many senses, is a subjective term; you understand it as "following a well-trodden path," while I understand it as the simplest and most effective way to achieve a goal.

Don't make things up. We both understand rationality as the simplest and most effective way. So far, your method shows little effectiveness, like any undertaking from scratch, especially without sufficient experience in playing and balancing. Let's see how long it takes before you abandon your mod. :)

I disagree about the equivalence of the ability. There's a big difference between 50% + knockback and 100%, besides the exorbitant damage of the second ability, it is also very situational, which is a big minus.

I was talking about the approximate equivalence of direct damage and ignoring 50% of defense.

The 6th one turned out to be not as good in execution due to a bugged suppression effect.

What bug are you talking about? Not the one where, with such an ability, a few units of this type of ranged attacker completely prevent enemy ranged attackers with piercing shots from firing? In the case of mages, this can still be fixed (there's Magic Fist), but countering such poor ranged attackers, having a couple of the same in your army, turns into an easy win.