boboblah, my sentiments on this issue mirror your own. I don't intend to offer a true point-buy system for D@W and I think offering one would probably give players the wrong idea about the nature of the game.
As a rule of thumb for balancing scenarios and playtesting, I recommend:
- Allocate each player a "monthly budget" of GP for troops and officers.
- Units cost 120 x monthly cost (or 500 or 200 x at epic scale). Officers cost their monthly cost.
The game assumes that the average cost per soldier is 24gp per month. If you build armies naturalistically (e.g. respecting the rules on training, availability of mercenaries, and so on), you'll end up near this range. If you arbitrarily build armies that are wildly outside this range, wierd things begin to happen. I would recommend that you require that average cost be a minimum of 12gp per troop for humans and demi-humans and 6gp per troop for beastmen; and maximum cost be 60gp per troop for any army.