True. The real problem is the narrow focus of the class overall, which is why the SRD released three very nice Paladin alternatives, which give you a Chaotic Good, Chaotic Evil, and Lawful evil variation of the paladin, so that you can still use it even if you don't want to be Lawful, or if you're playing in an evil game (or just fighting Good creatures more often than Evil creatures)
I suggest you focus on that first, because the heavy alignment restriction/alignment focus of the class is the primary reason that a paladin is a poor choice for a player, along with the fact that it has so many dead levels after 6th.
Also, Charging Smite was released as an ACF for the Special Mount class feature.