The move of the initial settler 1 NE was not bad. 1NE could have made an outstanding cottage capital, and it had plenty of food and production to build the first few units.
Assuming you can tell from the tile border what the tiles immediately surrounding the initial 9 are ... moving NE trades:
4 plains hills
1 grassland hill
2 desert hills
1 flood plain
1 forest (the grassland underneath is gained, but another grassland is lost, so even trade)
for:
1 plain
5 unknown riverside tiles (could be plains or floodplains, or grassland, but plains are most likely)
2 unknown tiles likely not riverside.
If you scout first, you will find out that you are only gaining 1 flood plain and trading all the hills for plains. In hind sight the iron is nice, but you wouldn't know it is there when you settle, and 1 iron isn't worth losing 6 hills. And with the info you would have, 1 more flood plain isn't worth losing the hill production.
Staying in place gives enough food if you cottage all the non hills that you can Either run cottages for high commerce, or FP cottages with 5 of the hills.
I guess if you don't think a high production available early in the capital is as valuable as having 18 or 19 cottages in the industrial era, then you are right. In my opinion the option of getting high production is too valuable for a potential commerce benefit around size 15. I'm not saying you are definitely wrong, but pointing out the trade-offs of moving.