I don't think the devs made AW as a joke or trap, I think they just severely overestimated the power of hammers from Specialists. I think they were afraid of "Oh no, what if people use Specialists to make any city productive no matter the terrain" so they were real stingy with it. Engineers have a similar problem, but at least they're getting you GE points.
I think the devs also thought Priests would be a bigger part of the game in general, e.g. that Temples would be higher priority than they are, so people would have more Priest slots, and that Great Prophets would be more popular than they are, so people wouldn't see them as "pollution."
All of that is to say I know AW is worthless, easy F-tier wonder, but I just can't help myself from occasionally tinkering with it.
I agree Pacifism is rad, though, and easily the best part of the tech.