False dichotomy followed by groupthink, IMO.
I tend to agree: The Civ series always had a strong boardgame/wargame aspect, what made Civ unique was not that it was an empire sim, but that it attempted to *combine* both these aspects into a single game. Not always so well, and usually to the detriment of the boardgame aspect, originally driven by severe platform limitations when the first Civ came out (squares are easier to render than hexes, point-to-point (city to city) line movement is easier on the AI than movement over a 2D space, etc); so much to the detriment, though, that the board-game was the ultimate optimal way to go strategically. So to with the "empire-sim" metagame: always emphasize gold, just ask TMIT and DaveW, I followed them and my game instantly leaped a level (currently Emperor, BtS+*the current BetterAI*, very important!)
Unfortunately the boardgame aspect in Civ was by far the most tedious and ultimately boring, and it was a good design decision to finally clean this up.
The jury is still out in my mind as to whether they have permanently de-emphasized or "dumbed down" the empire-sim aspect. I do miss:
1) Trade routes with other AIs. Gold was always god, but emphasizing trade routes + GLH was a *limited* alternative to simple cottage spamming (although I always did both for good measure, as routes are inherently unstable over the long run), and this gave a powerful incentive to stay on good terms with (overseas) AIs for as long as possible. Hence it impacted diplomacy.
2) Diplomacy: AI attitude towards civics choices. Maybe I'm wrong, but CivV AI doesn't care about your SP choices. A whole strategic game aspect is missing here.
Both of the above do not involve the introduction of micromanagement tedium. Both involve straightforward strategic decision-making. But as against the CivV critics, the structures (trade routes and SPs) already exist in the game and can be extended , rather than be awkward feature add ons like espionage or religion (particularly the AP).
And far from a "massive fail", their absence may be part of the marketing strategy, to be released for ransom in later expansions. Hey, welcome to capitalist game production! It sucks, I know!
But I suspect that it will be easier to extend the empire-sim metagame now than to do so on the old, truly broken broken boardgame.