@67Sage101 I was going to not message, but
@DevaCat can tell you I have problems keeping my mouth shut. I too am a noob. What you may not realize is those Gates of the Sun and Faces of the Ancient have upgrades - the Gate at lev 2 adds 4% def to your attacking army, and the Face at lev 2 adds 3% attack to your attacking army and these boosts stack. Not much help to the bigger boys but a boost to beginners' cities. And if you don't want them, sell them to the AD. And yes I have got these items in GE as well as the upgrades.
I have also got stupid stuff like aqueducts. I was excited when I got a sacred sky watch till I looked up it's stats - the SoK is better, it seems. However, when I looked up what I could get for it if I sold it -- it is worth approximately 3380 in trade coins. I don't have AD researched yet so this is an estimate.
I think I've only made it thru GE4 one time. I am still working on it -- switching over from negotiating to fighting all the way thru. And I just put down a ToR to see if that gives me more goodies. If you can't fight and don't have the goods to negotiate, then don't do that part of this game until you can. And before you put me in the crusty category -- I started this game in May of 2020. And I believe you had said in another post that you are in EMA - well I am in Iron Age.