I won my 5CC last night, by 20K culture, in 2048. It was Monarch, small, 60%, continents, random terrain/water/temp, as Carhtage. Doing so took hours of monotony, hitting the button, clearing pollution, button, pollution, etc. Once in a while confirming a tech choice or queueing up another wonder for my 20K city. In a demogame, this would be weeks or even months of monotony.
I could have won several hundred years earlier by conquest -- but before I hit button pressing mode it was 100% military except for the rare occasion where a tech opened up a new building -- build that in each of the 5 cities and then back to more military. This was also monotony, just a different kind.
As far as I could tell, I had to play it exactly like I did, no variation, to keep the AI from winning on points in 2050. If I left the last AI standing more than 5 cities then I would have a lower score, and wouldn't be able to trigger one of the other victory conditions.
Do we want a game which is scripted until the end? More cities would give us the potential to build frivolous things before their time, and keep the length of the button pressing period shorter.