The reason I find Inno a better fit early on for population if you're able to set yourself up to obtain one, is because it's vastly cheaper than the Babel to set up for that purpose. You barely even need to touch it for it to serve its purpose allowing you to direct your Forge Points into other areas.
Level 1 Innovation Tower provides 3,600 population
Level 80 Tower of Babel 3,225 population
The goods output on a Level 10 Tower of Babel is 15 per day. A single goods building is 20 per day. If that eliminates your need for goods buildings then you barely had goods buildings in the first place.
Ok that's certainly a point in your favour. Goods wise the Innovation Tower is a big step up in initial outlay.
1,750 goods / 2 = 875 lower era goods total needed to trade for Contemporary Era goods at a 2:1 ratio. VS 150 Bronze Age goods you can gather yourself for the Babel.
So then it comes down to how long would it take you to get goods and blue prints for the Innovation Tower?
I would shop around and see what's the cheapest you can get those goods before deciding whether it's too expensive or to go ahead with it. These days goods are way cheaper than they used to be. Also would need to consider how long you're going to keep the building or if you'll delete it too soon to be worth building.
