GatlingGun
Warlord
Yes, expansion room and it's value are the main criteria for boosting. If you get a ton of sweetening like this it's because you are tucked into an isolated corner. Conversely, if your expansion area (likely city locations that are closer to you than anyone else on the same continent) is highly valuable you would get nothing, even if your starting location has no resources. However, I have found that lots of resources tends to signal a more difficult game.
However, you would always get a bonus for your difficulty level. On Prince that defaults to 1 resource. This is a new feature starting with 2.04.
Ok, this makes sense based on what I saw in that game as India with only one grasshorse...
I personally think the minimum should be at least one FOOD resource... ideally you should get a minimum of two resources... one food and maybe something else... otherwise you would could be in the position of settling in-place and the capital takes a rather long time to grow. This cripples your expansion and effectively gives it to the AIs.