So I think I possess some knowledge of the game.
Your own posts belie this statement.
There is no correlation between Era and understanding of the game.
You are not alone, this forum and the game have always been littered with players who are bad at the game and yet play in the highest Eras.
They are the ones perpetually at the bottom of their hood, the worst come here and whine about coiners being bullies while getting their asses whooped and want to change the game.
Instead of learning it.
Every player responding to you has gone through the process of learning the game, we all started by getting whupped, we all learned.
Instead of taking advantage of a treasure trove of knowledge, you choose to dismiss and sneer at it.
How well does that work for you in real life?
I think those individuals should be permitted to play the game in the manner they choosel
Try to explain that to someone when playing poker. Or chess. Or football.
feeding the egos of those who are willing to buy diamonds
No, I feed my ego by being right.
I get a massive amount of satisfaction by telling quitters like you exactly how wrong you are, exactly how to fix your situation, and then seeing you quit the game because you refuse to believe I'm right.
Or better yet seeing you change as you learn the game.
Progress in this game does not hinge on Diamonds, it hinges on understanding the game. All Diamonds do is enable faster play, players have to learn better play.
Awful players spending Diamonds waste the Diamonds on awful things.
I'm not a smart person, but I read a lot, ask a lot of questions. and experiment a lot.
Doing that I became expert at this game long before I started earning significant amounts of Diamonds
Never bought any, earned about 100K across three cities, have 35K in bank, spent the rest on Diamond Expansions and a few random things.
Any competent player can easily extract enough Diamonds from the game to never need to buy them.
Maybe you should be asking about that?
Or how to mitigate plundering?
Or any other aspect of the game you have trouble with?