The first of the two improvements is to radically alter how tiles are improved. Implement a system for upgrading tiles through gold purchasing. This removes workers completely, reducing the clugs created by 1upt.
The second improvement is to modify how tiles are gained via culture. Remove gold purchasing of tiles, and implement a system for targetting cultural tile acquisition within the city manager interface.
Either suggestion could be implemented independently. Of the two, the former offers greater benefit to the game. However, implementing just the former would create an additional tile related gold sink, of which there are enough already.
The second improvement is to modify how tiles are gained via culture. Remove gold purchasing of tiles, and implement a system for targetting cultural tile acquisition within the city manager interface.
Either suggestion could be implemented independently. Of the two, the former offers greater benefit to the game. However, implementing just the former would create an additional tile related gold sink, of which there are enough already.