Less, more expensive units could be ok. In my opinion either way works. My personal preference is for the build pace to remain the same but have units on the campaign map represent more in the RTS map. As it is if you assault an area with 5 armors that is not a huge force, but it's decent sized. Yet when you enter the RTS map you have... 5 armors (which is not really that powerful of a force at all). By the time you reach the first capture point that the enemy is near the enemy could create a giant blob of grenadiers and stomp all over your starting units.
I think the representation of units on the campaign map should be around double or even triple in the RTS what they already are. That way you can counter enemy blobs by smart starting forces on the campaign map. Also that means that when you enter the map with a decent force you actually start out with an army instead of a small team of units. That could make it so that the loss screen isnt pointless as the battles will be quicker and more emphasis is placed on the starting units (using built units as reinforcements to your main starting force). Then when your opponent builds a GBOD you can just counter it with a larger starting force. That wont stop drag out fights when the sides are even (which should cause lots of casualties anyway) but then in early game you can start out with some blobs of your own.
The current build does favor GBOD in the game (at least until a fair bit of research is done) as since starting forces are usually so tiny that you can simply outproduce the enemy and easily turn fights around. There are some counters though. If you can field armors en masse short sharp stick makes a mess of trooper blobs. Bomber Balloons are also nasty! I found chemical warfare grenadiers couples with a dragon with acid breath can easily stomp most swarms. Really a good dragon with acid breath can devastate entire trooper blobs by himself in one pass. Grenadier blobs are much trickier though. Against those maybe counter with your own trooper blobs or devastators in siege mode.
If you are struggling in early game against blobs (before alot of that research is done) then you should just make your own blobs. Early game before much research is done is pretty blobby regardless. I imagine because blobs are easier to work with so new players can focus on learning the game without having to make smart army composition and knowing what counters what. That comes later once players get a grasp of the basic system. I like it that way personally. Much more friendly to new players then giving them a ton of counters and special abilities to deal with (which is still in my opinion too hard to effectively manage without autocast with more than one fight going at the same time, even after you've learned the system. I know some disagree with me but that's just my personal opinion).
