@drewisfat For
me, org is a very nice trait.
The game is seldom over for me once I find myself in the situation you describe.
I have a somewhat firm grasp of the game so that I can often (far from always) get to a comfortable situation with alot of land.
But when I do get to that position, it's not like i'm out of the woods. There is still alot of ways I can screw up and turn that situation which is in theory winable or even won into a loss.
And when I have distrubed the delicate balance of the won game I do have to collect myself again, and having less maintenence, or easily being able to whip a round of courthouses can really get me going to the next stage in tech where I get a new chance.
"Oh, I failed with cuirs, onward to cav!" "Oh, I seem to have suicided way too many cavs... Oh well, I need cannons now too." "Eh, the leader AI seem to be awfully close to AL, I need to get there too." etc etc.
And the cheap factories does miracles when I do get to AL which is often something that I shoot for anyway.
So I see the point you are making, once you know how to win it ORG doesn't really do that much for you. But from my point of view and in my situation, it does give me more leeway to get through even though I do dumb mistakes.