So what is RAND? RAND initially appears as a progression of RFC with a random map. But RFC is so tweaked for its map, its AI spawning and behavior, and its stability - all in the name of historical accuracy - that at a certain point, it's losing one of the key aspects of Civilization: remaining fun and challenging.
One of the keys to having a game be fun and challenging is that the player should have the necessary information to do what they need to do. (I've actually written about this!
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_95/533-Mid-Level-Exceptions) Random stability maps, poor spawning locations, and chaotic flipping can get in the way of that.
I would argue that, instead of viewing RAND as a progression of RFC which was a progression of Civ4 and Rhye's of Civilization, RAND might be better viewed as a midpoint between vanilla Civ4 and RFC. I consider the two most interesting and beneficial aspects of RFC to Civ4 to be dynamic spawning and stability, and I consider speed to always be critically important.
So, in general, my vision of what would make a "good and balanced" game of RAND would be one which includes the best aspects of stability and dynamic spawns, and I'm willing to sacrifice other parts before then. It's better, in my mind, to have a China which may be a superpower in the endgame than to have a China which can achieve its (insane) UHV.
A different viewpoint, which sees RAND as an extension of RFC, might call for China's UHV to be rebalanced to the point where its stability collapse by 1700 isn't as important.