Philosophy in about 95% of games, as an Immortal player. There are many reasons, but the chief one is that done quickly enough it's a decent amount of guaranteed trade value and on the path to Lib and Nationalism at the same time. Done even quicker it's a guaranteed religion if such a thing is needed (Pacifism plays). One of the most efficient bulbs in the game in terms of cost/return.
I rarely bureau cap and the only reason I wouldn't Philo bulb with 1st GS in a game is:
1.) Astro map, where he goes toward Machinery/Optics instead. By far the most common alternative.
2.) I'm WAY behind (can happen with lots of early war resulting in tons of land) and Philo has no value on the market, in which case he may used for a GA or bulb on better tech (Edu, Chemistry) instead for some trade value. I have even used the 1st GS on helping with SciMeth before, desperately clawing toward Communism.
3.) Something quirky like Math bulb to Construction attack or bulb Alpha. You can get away with loads of crap if you are a PHI leader. This is where I would fit in a bureau cap play too.
I tend to settle out as much land as possible, easily taking 10-12 cities in many of my games before running out of room which makes the relative cost/return of Bureau cap lesser (Bureau can HURT with 15+ cities, though I rarely get that high before war). It's definitely not the most efficient way to play the game nor one with most eye towards success, but I like big empires and denying land to the AI, then figuring out how to solve the problems of paying for it and teching, etc. It's how I roll, and more focus on empire-wide food+specialists+Nationhood+Pacifism tends to go along with that instead of focusing efforts around one city, even it's the best city as the capitol often is.
Also I tend to cottage either the most appropriate city(ies) or just cottage a bit everywhere as needed/is efficient. It rarely works out that I end up with so much focus on the capitol alone in terms of commerce, and I nearly always am developing it as either a settler/whipping/hammer pump or GP farm going forward, so bureau is also not such a focus for me.
If just HANDED a good initial capitol spot for one, sure I'd consider it more. There was a NC game like this with Lincoln, who was also PHI on top of that. Definitely did bureaucap there, it was different in feel but largely irrelevant compared to the effect of PHI trait itself.
-bonus.
.
