I don't speak tech, so please bear with me.
Currently, the computer is set to randomly MP based on age. It starts with highest age and works its way down.
Why not set the computer to select structures based on value - first motivate houses with highest base coin output, supply buildings with highest output, and cult buildings that have the highest happiness value?
Something like this:
1. M/P special structure - Shrine, Tiger's Den, etc (by the way, side note here: why isn't HoF included here??)
2. 30/70 random choice - 30% chance of polish, 70% chance of motivation
3: If Polish selected - computer polishes highest value structure in city
4: If motivate selected - 50/50 chance of supply or coin
5: If supply selected - motivate building with highest base value
6. If coin selected - motivate house with highest base value
Here is an example. I currently have shoemakers, frame houses, and clapboards in my city. I just advanced to HMA, and I am now swapping out frame houses for brownstones. With the aid button, the computer goes for the highest age structure - the brownstones. LOL I either get a polish (if one is available), or a brownstone is motivated.
Using the decision tree I detailed above, I would first have a 70/30 chance of either polish or motivate. If motivate is selected, my poor ignored shoemakers would still have a 50% shot at being motivated. Furthermore, if coin is selected, the clapboards, with a higher output value than the brownstones would be motivated.
In a way, I guess the timing of this has saved me some real grief. I was holding out on updating supply buildings until I reached LMA so that I could put in some Spice Traders. With the new aid button though, premium buildings just aren't worth building. The Spice Traders would have carried me all the way to IndAge, if not Progressive Age. Now, the instant I advance to CA, they won't get motivated and will stop being useful.
There is just no two ways about it - premium buildings will lose their luster because they will become outdated in a single age, just like regular buildings. With the decision tree I described though, they won't become obsolete until a later age structure is added that has a higher base value.
I hope I explained that well enough.