"to help in their war of liberation." It seems to have been introduced or increased in version 142. I disliked powerful civs spawning where there was no empty space for them, and I hate this. Babylon is no longer fun at all, for example.
Well, Babylon is meant to die and possibly resurface in the industrial/modern/post-modern eras as a vassal. IMO, the best option for a powerful Babylonian Empire is to screw the UHV and go for Archery then Bronze Working.
Have your build order in Babylon be worker, settler, warrior, barracks, archer, archer, archer, archer...And in the bronze city, go for Barracks, Spearman, Spearman, Spearman, Archer, Archer, Archer....
Once Persia spawns, declare war on them, then march your stack to Pasargade. The 3 spearmen on a hill (or even better, in a forest) can handle up to 9 Immortals. Then suicide your Archers onto Pasargade and eliminate Persia. Now you have an uber-city to fuel research towards Construction, production of units and an Ivory resource for Elephants.
You should raze As-Sur/Sur and Ur if they flip and keep Susa. You should stay to these 4 cities, pumping out units and wonders, until Arabia spawns. Don't go into India, don't go up to Samarkland, don't go into Turkey. Possibly pick up Yerushalem, but remember that that city will flip.
Once Arabia spawns, use your hoards of Elephants, Catapults and Archers to take down Yerushalem and Makkah. raze the rest. At this point, you can expand anywhere you want except Turkey since the turks will flip anything you put up there.