Leyrann
Deity
Well, that is exactly the point, we are going to see more or less identical playstyles. You want a fast scientific victory: Eureka>tech>eureka>tech. There will be only one viable strategy for that.
That is not what I meant, nor is it even remotely what I was talking about. If you have a game where you have a lot of barbarians, you will be fighting them, and gaining the eureka's for techs and civics that deal with combat, making it logical to go that route both because you have to deal with it and because you get cheaper techs. If, on the other hand, you don't have a lot of barbarians, but you're stuck on a relatively small island, you'll have a lot of coast, will be doing a lot of stuff related to it, and gain eureka's for techs related to the sea, giving you additional incentive to play in that direction.
So it does not push you into one single path, it actually makes you take a path depending on your surroundings because it's cheaper.
Also, can you maybe explain what you meant by "you want a fast scientific victory"? I'm not exactly sure what you mean with that... I mean, if you're going for a science victory, yeah, of course you'll be focusing on science and eureka's. That's the point of a science victory.