I also like the formula given all these games I keep playing and buying but I also think that its fundamentally broken too. The fact that each game takes hours of investment mean that its been unable to benefit from online play as much taking away the problems of AI because of how hard it is to get other people to commit to that. This means the game is less stress tested for "fair play", which results in it being less balanced along with Immortal/Deity being a hack (+1 free settler, +2 free settler, plus a bunch of flat +% to research/production).
I just think _somewhere_ there's a better receipe.
I think it's fine if people don't like what 4X games are like currently, but I don't think that doing something different should be at the expense of those who do like what exists. One of my great frustrations with Civ VII was that they were attempting to solve a problem I don't agree the game had (boring late game), using methods that took away what I did enjoy about the game (building up a civ over time).