Forum complaining about that is the direct cause of the superweapon cap. I don't know where you got the idea nobody was complaining about it, Novalith spam was a big issue here not that long ago. (Nobody was complaining about DE spam, though...)

And their culture from a neighboring planet helps to negate it. A 25% damage boost is nice, but it's not "oh look I just dropped a Titan and an Orky of mass death onto your capital" nice. These two things simply do not compare.

Done deal. I'd take wiping out planets and wrecking economies any day, because a not very effective way to spread culture is really not something the Advent particularly need.

It's not like the DE is hard to fix. The concept is alright. They just need to tweak it so that it actually gets more of its effects without being blocked so easily.

I'm not even going to consider the cultural flip (and the associated military bonuses) since DE's are so easy to counter with culture centers...

It gives you a 25% damage boost for 2 and half minutes...that is not very long at all, and good luck trying to use multiple deliverance engines to prolong the duration of the buff during a battle...

Does it help?  Sure...anything helps...but...compared to a kostura that can disable all structures (like repair bays, research labs, SUPERWEAPONS) for 3 minutes, I'd say that the DE could do a lot better in helping out assaults on fortress worlds...

If it lasted longer, or guaranteed a culture change so you'd get your nice shield mitigation, then maybe it'd be comparable...maybe...

But you don't get the culture flip for sure, and it doesn't last very long...By the time the cannon shell even hits the target, the enemy may have forced you to defend elsewhere, or an opportunity may have presented itself and the offense is now on a different planet...