No, feudalism is a hierarchical economical system that is capable of producing and maintaining heavy cavalry in a poor agrarian society. When famine is likely,

No, feudalism is a hierarchical economical system that is capable of producing and maintaining heavy cavalry in a poor agrarian society. When famine is likely, feudalism ensures that the knight, his horse, and his family, never starves and can defend the population at all times. Knights were granted enough land such that it was deemed possible that it could feed the serfs living there, and produce enough excess to feed the knight and his horse. Indentured servitude was a way of guaranteeing a stable population of serfs, and prohibiting competition between the landed gentry, otherwise the serfs would urbanize or move to richer lands. Feudalism is about utilizing all the land for the purpose of raising knights. The "attendant absurdities" only appeared once the economy started producing so much excess that it became hard to justify the system, even though the system is what allowed the various realsm to be protected from raiders and each other in the first place.