While that is somewhat true, I have seen people send themselves from a AAA to a C bond over a T1 Water tile. It was something like 114k. I think tile auctions provide a dynamic that helps prevent the game from getting stale in certain situations.

I'm gonna have to call you out on that man, just because you don't like that way of playing doesn't mean it's meaningless in general.

Personally my prefered types of maps are ones with low silicon. Low water can get a little crazy with all the life spport, low carbon can be ignored by 1 person with carbon scrubbing, but low silicon I feel strikes that nice balance since it's used for glass, electronics and power. With less power available actually committign to power tiles becomes required, and the idea of glass and electronics just going up and up and up is interesting. To win in a low silicon match you have to buy a lot of resources before you need to use them, a dynamic people don't use enough of.