Thanks for this write-up. Really useful.
The depth issue is fair -- the current version runs out of things to do after a few runs. The next update is redesigning this from the ground up: civilizations stop resetting and the world keeps growing instead, so each run layers onto the last rather than starting fresh. It should fix the repetitiveness you're describing.
The city-of-balance dominance is a known problem. Almost every run ends the same way in the data too. Fixing that is tied to the world redesign.
Two confirmed bugs from your report:
- Japanese notifications on higher building upgrades: found the cause, will patch it.
- Guidance of the Codex: the perk fires internally but the memory formula makes it invisible in practice. The description is misleading. Needs redesigning.
Mobile scroll in those panels is noted. Not officially supported but worth fixing.
Appreciate you going deep enough to find the rare cities.