I agree with all of the moves you made, and I hope you didn't feel badgered into splitting the tiers
-
England: Seems like a solid move down. I think it's hard to place the purely military civ's, but the way I view war I'm not inclined to rate any of them above average. There's also a lot of difficulty in ranking each one against the others, since the result is just always the same. For example, I personally like Denmark quite a bit and find it very hard to ever be slowed down in war with them, but I definitely view the Keshik as the best military UU, and it's hard to argue Denmark as equal to Zulu now. Also, maybe the start bias is the only "bulider" factor for these? In that case, I like Mongolia's Plains bias the most for those prod-heavy starts, and the Coast bias of Japan, England, Ottoman, and Denmark is definitely a non-zero benefit to these civs.
-
Germany, Huns: I agree with the moves up. Again though, this is a tough style of civ to deal with. These civs are ones that will be played warlike in nearly every game they're overtly chosen, while receiving some small builder benefit mostly related to war. In this category I'd put China, Assyria, and Japan along with Germany and Huns. Maybe England's extra spy and Zulu's reduced maintenance qualifies them as military-plus also instead of just military-only, while Arabia seems to lend to that style while having two benefits (Bazaar, DF) that are often enough to just carry them as a builder civ. Within the class of military-plus though, I definitely agree that China > all. The Paper Maker is awesome for keeping those units paid for, and is easily double the value of Germany's reduced maintenance. Then, I think Germany, Huns and Assyria are more or less on the same level, with Arabia being marginally above all three and less than China when considered as a military civ.
-
Korea: It's hard to rank this civ against others of its tier, because it got both better and worse in BNW. Worse because there are fewer specialist slots available, especially in empires larger than 3-cities where Korea was outshining Babs in G&K. But it also got better due to Coastal bias getting better due to TR's, and the Lighthouse building getting better. You'll have better economy with Korea than Babs, and definitely Maya, and you'll usually have better Culture defense and a taller Capital. What you lack is the flexibility of these civs, and definitely less than Poland. I'd say that if I knew beforehand I'd be held to 3 or fewer cities, then I want Korea. Otherwise or if war is coming, I'd want one of the other 3. But definitely all in the same tier.
-
Polynesia: I think relative to Brazil and France, this Civ gets short shrift. Their UI is definitely the best for long-game Culture output for policies, whether or not CV, just due to it being built so much earlier. I like Brazil of the three overall for CV due to the Golden Ages, but I think the Moai is the best and most versatile of the culture UI's. For some reason also, Polynesia's UI always gets analyzed in terms of what else could've been built on the tile, while none of the others do. Remember though, a tile improvement is +1 of an input as a standard baseline. The +2 improvements need Chemistry, Fertilizer, Economics, or at least Civil Service. Moai is potentially +2 from Construction on. That's hugely important for getting through enough of Exploration, Aesthetics, Rationalism, maybe Piety, and then the Ideology, all on time for Deity CV. That Culture output within a 3-4 city coastal empire is definitely worth an extra whole tree. Not to mention, coastal got a huge buff in BNW otherwise. I think it's just that a lot of players still avoid Coastal like the plague, and play Pangea most of the time besides. But really, it's hard reconcile why people are getting such good results out of Poland, when the main difference between it and any of the Culture civs for that matter, is nothing more than opportunity cost of how tiles are being worked. All get their extra policies rolling in at a more or less linear rate, and Polynesia is actually the most front-loaded of the 4, with the second-best start bias behind Poland. I'm still taking Poland instead for any non-Culture game, but I suppose I'm just echoing the idea of the OP that these culture UI's are more versatile and higher yield than they're typically analyzed.