Hi, thanks for trying Bronze Age and sharing your settlements.
Trade and managing multiple settlements will definitely be a major part of Bronze Age in the future. I'm not certain how trade and diplomacy will interact yet, as the AI currently has no concept of diplomacy, but it's an interesting area to explore. Along with that comes a certain amount of fragility as well, if you trade a lot with neighbors you will start to become dependent on it. What happens when those trade links are disrupted? (spoiler: nothing good).
Some of the changes in 2.0 will support more geographically scattered resources, which will help encourage trade as well.