And again, not every civ has to be the "best" civ, or be super-OP. If the civ gives interesting bonuses that yields a fun and different play-style, that's a bonus in my books. Phoenecia certainly has some potential for that. I don't think they're going to be my #1 civ, but they at least offer a slightly different style to the other naval powers.
Exactly. From what we've seen the civs for the expansion are going to be mostly mid tier with any civ with major advantages like Maori or Mali having some serious drawbacks to balance them. I'd rather that than have more OP civs.
I was amused that that video analyzing Phoenicia gave the Cree as an example of a weak civ and seemed to think having the eureka for writing was one of their better abilities.