@Buttercup
I understand what you are saying regarding monarchy. There was a time when I was a diehard monarchy fan. It has some attractive qualities that make it nice, especial for players that are either new or that don't like to MM all the time. If you are hesitant about using the luxury slider it is also attractive because moving MPs can balance things out in high population cities - but to my mind that is another type of MM. Another nice feature is that your MPs can make unhappy foreigners in newly conquered cities happy, something that makes a republic annoying.
However, I think the issue here is that you are talking about a Regent game. At regent you can win with the city governors managing your cities. Keeping up with techs is not much of a problem; good trading will often get you ahead even without good planning. And 6-8 turns per tech is not great, though early in the game there is not much you can do. The aim is for 4 turn techs.
This is where monarchy falls down for most players. Research is a function of gpt. You cannot research more then you can make in one turn (modified by multiplier buildings and science farms). You can deficit spend, but you still can't research faster than your gpt. Because Republic gives more gold per tile, you have an increased gpt and thus an increased capacity. Increased capacity + multiplier buildings=even more gpt. As both types of government receive the same benefit from science farms, that's a wash. So, all things being equal, 100% of monarchy research is far less than 100% of republic research.
The strength of monarchy is that it has a large unit support and no war weariness. But in the context of research, that does not, in itself, increase the maximum rate at which you can research. It just reduces the maintenance costs/luxury slider and may allow you to move the science slider higher (but remember, you are using the monarchy's reduced pool of money). As you can deficit spend, a Republic could cover maintenance costs by raising additional capital - such as selling those advanced techs for gold or gpt. War weariness,
when it exists , can be offset by additional luxuries (which can be traded for techs) or situational entertainers.
Bottom line - Republics will almost always research faster than Monarchies.
This is pretty important at higher difficulties. Creamcheese is probably talking about Emperor+ games. Yes you can win in Monarchy at higher difficulties. It is most helpful when the game has turned into a slugfest. The idea of Republic is to research faster and field units that are much stronger. Thus you have less war weariness because your units are not dying and you have a smaller army because each unit is that much better then the enemy.
I personally don't use any assistance programs because I love to MM. But there comes a time for everyone when enough is enough. That threshold is different for everyone.
WLTKD is a common term with no attachment to any form of government. It is a point of reference in common use on this site. So to say 'we love the king day' does not imply you are in a monarchy government, it implies the state of a city in celebration. And who doesn't like to see fireworks?
