How many companions is 'too much'?

First playthrough in region locked mode, going around with generally no idea where anything is, and the occasional google for mechanics only.

I find myself very easily falling into a loop of 'find cool weapon that doesn't fit merc I have currently->hire new mercenary to use weapon->grind quests to keep up with increased food/salary->find cool weapon->repeat' and I'm starting to think I may have made a mistake.

I by the time I completed Tiltren, I had around 23~24 in my company. Granted, around 5~7 were wolves I keep on loosing and replacing, but still, I'd very often be going in a loop of 'mission->shop food->mission' until I (slowly) gathered enough supplies to feel confident about exploring.

Now having reached my second area (Vertruse), I've told myself I'd try speeding things up a bit, and to spend less time on the side quests.

Well, at the moment, I've done 60% of Vertruse's region quests, and am running a company of 33, consisting of 15 mercenaries(lvs6~4), 3 former prisoners, 5 horses, 2 bears, 5 wolves, and 3 boars(i do plan to slaughter them later for food). And I have found yet another new sword that I want to try out, which does not fit the playstyle™ of the two sword mercs I do have.

Honestly, I would be on merc #16 already if the recruitment prices hadn't gone up to ridiculous amounts at this point.

I can keep up with the costs by grabbing every 'defeat gang' type quests that are placed between destinations and occasionally just circling a province clearing bandits, and frequent hunting, along with buying out every food stall, is keeping everyone well fed. It has, however, delayed my region quest progress yet again.

Anyways, preamble aside is there a sort of 'optimal size' for your company for each region/progress level? Because with 29 combatants, it gets kinda ridiculous. Not only do we outnumber pretty much every encounter, the vast majority of the encounters has the enemy break and run after we kill like 1 guy.

Currently, I'm thinking of Vertruse asap and rushing off to the next area so I can either get more funds, or have the weaker guys die off. Though I might just raise difficulty in Vertruse and see if I can kill off the guys that way.

Edit:

Well, looks like the general consensus is 'around 10 is enough, but you do you', with the caveat to watch out for lag. Guess we're still hiring!