You are playing very crowded maps then.
Since you're only going to have a difference of a few provinces anyway, expansion against indies can be largely ignored, which might make a difference.
Dawn Guard mixed with Chariots seems to slaughter AI nations as well as sacred troops, and can be raised in closer forts and in greater numbers as you expand.
And claiming a 160 pt difference (P3 -> S1) for using chariots ignores the points used to get that bless. Hardly a fair comparison.
Once you've expanded a bit, it's hard to get replacements from the capital to the front and you risk disaster if you do manage to lose a lot of your built up sacreds. Might not happen in SP, but is pretty much guaranteed in MP.
Which brings me back to my earlier suggestion of gearing any bless towards SCs rather than the troops.
I haven't played too much with the sacreds. How much have you noticed them eating population or other troops?