The AI never gets to the title nobleman so they can't compete politically, all their soldiers are always escorting, maybe if they had more they would attack but they almost never do. And I very rarely see the AI with over 2 businesses so they can not compete economically.
Well, you're wrong. The AI gets the title nobleman and upper. I have a king in my hometown and of course they are noblemen, in order to be elected in the upper levels. Some other dynasties are too and two of them are barons and 2nd level barons.
The number of businesses depends also on the number of dynasties chosen for a game. There is a finite number of businesses that a city can have the space for. So the more dynasties, the less space for businesses, it's not unlimited.
Anyhow, in the beta versions, Nirvana has already mentioned that the aggressiveness is lowered to deal with other things, in order to fix the bugs. They are beta though, and it won't remain like that. In 4.15 it's higher.
Also, in one of my games (one of beta versions), my rogue character was charged in another city, and I tried 4 times, each time with a different way, to change the course and not have him executed - bribing the participants, threaten them, keeping the prosecutor from attending trial, even killing him in the woods - it was very difficult.
So, it's not that easy from many aspects. For example, play 4.15 version and try to beat the plague. That's a very nice challenge and etc.
(The only thing that I somewhat agree regarding titles, is that the prices are very high for the titles. But, it is very easy to change that and lower the prices for each title.)