I know what happened with the difficulty bonuses. I was reading forums when not playing. Later era bonuses were already there when i played around 9 months ago. Yes i rolled Alexander and picked Aztecs next but also didn't use their early powers to
greater extend.
I am continuing my Aztecs immortall game to see what happens in later eras. It looks like AI's are better performing with everything except military and early science. They fight really smart but don't have that many units like before. Siam and Babylon are hitting the gas in research.