What empire?
I can see why people would have such an aversion to advanced starts considering the misinformation about it.
...
Is this really destroying the purity of the Civilization experience? Is this what people find so abhorrent?
Ridiculous.
Woah, I don't think anyone is claiming that advanced starts are "abhorrent". It's just a matter of personal preference.
You're right to say that the elements of exploration and expansion aren't removed, so there are misconceptions. But I don't think that's at all why people don't want to play advanced starts. It's the idea of building an empire from the stone age to the space age which forms a lot of people's impressions of what Civ is about.