But when you started, certainly when I started, there were some very important differences:
1 - The old battlesystem allowed one to go farther ahead, so expansions from battle were easier to get
2 - the prices of premiumexpansions were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay lower, so it was possible to get a few without having to be a member of the billionaires-club
And be that as it may, it's utterly ridiculous that once again beginning players are suddenly faced with buildings that perform way less, in some instances suddenly dropping them to negative pop or culture, severly limiting the possibility to continue on.
Well you can still go as far as the old battle system, in the old system we negotiated, and in the new one, yes we still negotiate
If you looked at all the new wonders powers you can see that "overscouting" is the way to go with these wonders.
And serously, the impact of the GA wil only be for a few players and only for a very limited time.
Players who never had it, never notice the difference, people who have been playing actively wont even notice the difference. so that leaves a handfull of players who are setback a few inhabitants in there town, in a generic growing town, a very minor setback.
Thats unless you run some tiny town, with a humoungously leveled GA, but then the question is raised, why is your town so small and your abyss so big? maybe because it's your secondary account on which you login only once or twice a day?
Do the devs need to stop developing the game?
Each new chapter you need to adopt your town to the new situation, it's part of the game, this one to is a minor adaptation, the setback will be something like 6-12 squares for most, I dont really see the problem here.
Adopt and a few hours later you wont notice it anymore.