Thank you for that post. I often feel like many members of this forum pretend like it is utterly inconceivable that certain cultural and geographic groups can be associated with certain (sometimes unflattering) things - based on their history and a rough external perception. It's not the goal of Civilization to achieve the maximum political correctness. X identical factions, wow, that would be fun. Or let's make Finland the dystopian, orwellian faction for some reason... because, you know... it would be fair to switch the role of the "bad" guys for once...
If Firaxis would give in to every sensitivity of every person ever posting on this forum, all factions of every game would be about culture and peaceful progress in a liberal society.