If you are a Deity player, then Deity does actually allow you to win from multiple different angles, as long as they are sensible. You don't have to follow the formulaic 3-cities Tradition, Turn 70 NC baseline. All the game really requires you to do is make Education at a reasonable time, slot Specialists, then pick the tech order that's related to what you're doing. You just build the buildings/units that your technologies unlock.
It's just a common freak-out players have when they're sitting on low tech. If you measure out the tech tree though, you are only through about 3% of the way to a Science Victory having completed every single Medieval tech. An Education beelline is something like 2%. It's much more about how you get through that next 98%.
I remember some apologetic that a poker player made for why it wasn't gambling. He basically said that any game that you can intentionally lose is a game of skill. That's basically Civ. Don't deliberately not build buildings that you know you need, deliberately not settle, pick SP's, etc. You win when you know how to win in the end. The AI doesn't know how.