Here are two more examples that came to mind of Cataphracts steamrolling a game
Modri vs Hera Bo5 Arena showmatch - Game 5
Hidden Cup 4 Quarterfinals - Sundjata vs Admiral Yi Sun-Shin
Evidenced by my ease of finding expert games where Cataphracts are clearly useful and viable, these aren't just fluke cases. This is how it goes in game. Any pro player you ask would tell you catas are in a good spot in the meta RN and do not need a buff.
I don't think you understand that the mere EXISTENCE of the cataphract is an absolute nightmare for any infantry civilization, and is a fear of most archer civilizations as well. If you are Aztecs and you face vs Byzantines you have an advantage in the early game but pretty much insta-lose after byz survive early imperial age and the only thing that gives the Aztecs even a slight chance is the fact that Arbalesters counter catas. If you would make catas not lose to arbs anymore they would absolutely be broken, since then as other users said already, the only civs that would be able to do anything against them would be heavy cavalry civs that have access to Paladin, or something like Elite Mangudai/Camel Archers.
What you also don't seem to get is that Cataphracts being countered by arbs doesn't make them unviable at all because Byzantines have the best skirmisher spam in the game (Lithuanians and Vietnamese have potentially stronger skirms but byz are imo the most useful throughout the entire game). The Elite Skirmisher + Elite Cataphract combination is so incredibly strong vs non-cavalry civs that they shred and it's not like Byzantines don't have the tools to survive past early imperial age anyway considering their perfectly passable early/mid game plus 33% cheaper imperial advance.
Civs like Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Goths, Celts, Japanese, Vikings, Malay, Ethiopians etc all ALREADY get destroyed by Byzantines in the lategame, even despite catas being countered by arbs. Even vs civs WITH good heavy cavalry options, like Bulgarians, catas can be very useful, as showcased by the Arena showmatch game linked above. They are literally THE BEST COUNTER IN THE GAME to most infantry units, and unlike other infantry counters such as Jaguar Warriors, they are fast and can deal with low numbers of archers quite easily (just lose vs large masses).
Modri vs Hera Bo5 Arena showmatch - Game 5
Hidden Cup 4 Quarterfinals - Sundjata vs Admiral Yi Sun-Shin
Evidenced by my ease of finding expert games where Cataphracts are clearly useful and viable, these aren't just fluke cases. This is how it goes in game. Any pro player you ask would tell you catas are in a good spot in the meta RN and do not need a buff.
I don't think you understand that the mere EXISTENCE of the cataphract is an absolute nightmare for any infantry civilization, and is a fear of most archer civilizations as well. If you are Aztecs and you face vs Byzantines you have an advantage in the early game but pretty much insta-lose after byz survive early imperial age and the only thing that gives the Aztecs even a slight chance is the fact that Arbalesters counter catas. If you would make catas not lose to arbs anymore they would absolutely be broken, since then as other users said already, the only civs that would be able to do anything against them would be heavy cavalry civs that have access to Paladin, or something like Elite Mangudai/Camel Archers.
What you also don't seem to get is that Cataphracts being countered by arbs doesn't make them unviable at all because Byzantines have the best skirmisher spam in the game (Lithuanians and Vietnamese have potentially stronger skirms but byz are imo the most useful throughout the entire game). The Elite Skirmisher + Elite Cataphract combination is so incredibly strong vs non-cavalry civs that they shred and it's not like Byzantines don't have the tools to survive past early imperial age anyway considering their perfectly passable early/mid game plus 33% cheaper imperial advance.
Civs like Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Goths, Celts, Japanese, Vikings, Malay, Ethiopians etc all ALREADY get destroyed by Byzantines in the lategame, even despite catas being countered by arbs. Even vs civs WITH good heavy cavalry options, like Bulgarians, catas can be very useful, as showcased by the Arena showmatch game linked above. They are literally THE BEST COUNTER IN THE GAME to most infantry units, and unlike other infantry counters such as Jaguar Warriors, they are fast and can deal with low numbers of archers quite easily (just lose vs large masses).