Slowpoke,
A random event generator for CSs would be nice, though I'm not sure we (as a modding community) have such capacity yet.
Honestly, give it a try. As Alderaan mentioned, spending production instead of gold to befriend CSs makes diplomacy more engaging (because it is more costly) and it frees you up to spend your gold on other, more fun things like buying units, land and buildings.
In any case, my main focus for this mod wasn't to dramatically overhaul the way players interact with CSs (influence is influence, regardless of whence it comes), but rather to make CS diplomacy a geopolitical scenario. In vanilla, invisible ships could cart thousands of gold to CSs around the world in a split-second, allowing players to pick and choose the choicest CSs to befriend. Now, because diplo. units are capture-able civilians and can't enter rival territory (until you get the Foreign Office), players have to work with what's around them, CS wise.
Finally, this mod adds a bit of much-needed micromanagement for pacifistic civs. When CiV first came out I tried out a diplo victory (wanting to play with the new CS mechanic). 5 hours of clicking next turn, next turn, next turn later, I had won. But you know what? Not once did I feel like I was DOING anything. I was simply waiting for things to be done.
My rule with modding is, "never make something you yourself don't want to play." Though I am biased towards CSD2, I can't play civ without it.
Either way, I respect your opinion Slowpoke and appreciate you letting me know how you feel.
G