tbh my overall opinion is mechanics / accessability should be secondary to RP, or help to speed up access to rp.
for getting blocks, our old CT block-hub was simple, straightforward, and above all, not time consuming. traveling from place to place, hub to hub, doesn't leave players with that satisfied feeling of "having worked for it"; it's just a tedious stipulation that drags out their resource gathering to build their settlement. settlements are essentially small businesses; as staff we should try to help those businesses open as quickly as possible.
travel is getting people to that business. so this too, should be as streamlined as possible. I like our hubs on the current map, but fast travels should be used far more liberally. granted, I can admit that maybe with a smaller map, FT wouldn't be as necessary, and instead we could experiment with the speed boost again. adding more soulstone slots, however? sign me up. don't stop at four, give me five.
tiles I will admit I have very little opinion on. as an NL the system was easy to understand, and it was cool to grind mina to buy more of them. but i do think a tile-maximum would be wise for nations.
thank you for the transparency and interest in player perspective! looking forward to 9.0, and I hope my viewpoints were relevant to the topic.