Yes, with the VP bug, it's exactly that.
If/when the bug will be corrected, all units (except Almogaver) will lose the promotion by being upgraded to a Renaissance unit.
If you think the bonus is too low, they could be increased to 2% per tile of distance to the capital but of course, provided the bug is fixed.
After reading about the Almogavers on wiki, I find the unit is an exellent representation of the historic fighter.
As for the gran compania: losing it after medieval feels very historic. But from a gameplay perspective I would prefer to keep it for older units. This would be in line with many strong units in VP that go obsolete but carry over their promotions. This way you would have a core army of older units with gran compania, plus some almogavers you make in renaissance. And all the newer units don't get it.
As it is now, the promotion is weak early and strong later (if you go for domination and conquer further away). I feel Catalonia has no incentive to go for early wars. I always want to go as wide as possible to max gold from border growth and llotja yields. So I would only have defensive wars early if necessary.
Another way could be to give the promotion to all scout units and almogavers and make it permanent. Buff it to 2%. Thus way your starting scout could venture out safely and almogavers and their upgrades would pack a noticeable punch far away.
By the way, does Cataloniabhabe a plains start bias? I always got a plains start with them.