One would suppose there's only so many ways to fight medieval battles, especially if you're going to restrict your leading posts to the nobility.
As far as I can tell, except the Normans, the French could only hold power by brutalizing those weaker than themselves
How do you define that? If winning a war supposedly makes a country stronger than their opponents, then yes, I imagine most wars/battles are won against weaker opponents, but otherwise I'm not sure how to understand your point.