A game is a game. It is supposed to be fun. Challenging, yes -- difficult, yes -- but it should remain fun. The new population use system sucks virtually all the fun out of the game as you progress, both in terms of building cities and training units, as do the increasingly long lead times in the tech tree. I'm not looking to play a social modeling system -- I want to play a heroic thud-and-blunder 4x game.
Yes, we need more types of quests, goodie huts, etc. Lots more . I've been encountering the same dozen or so quests and rewards (rats! rings! blacksmith! compass!) ever since I first bought EWOM many months ago. At the same time, it might help not to have so many (numerically speaking) quests, huts, etc.
Much of the (non-monetary, non-resource) loot I get is useless except to sell for a few coins at the shop. In many cases, especially later in the game, I already have better weapons, shields, etc. researched. I want some seriously unbalancing rewards -- like a staff that boosts the bearer's INT by 10 points, but has a 10% chance of bursting asunder and stunning for some number of tactical rounds, or even seriously injuring, the bearer each time it is used. Or a war hammer that acts like Mjolner (e.g, makes a ranged attack) but runs a risk of not returning and might even be recovered by a champion on the other side (if there is one). Or a ring that renders the champion invisible, but which may suddenly fall off the ring-bearer's finger in the heat of battle. 
Of course, my party should have to slay some rather nasty creatures to get these, etc.
On that subject -- and I say this knowing full well the UI complications involved -- it would be nice to have champions be able to mount/unmount gear (weapons, shields, magical items, etc.) during tactical combat, at the cost of not attacking during that round.
It would be even nicer to be able to somehow get rid of useless starting items (e.g., those 3-point clubs that many champions start with) that the shop won't take and that can't be traded away.
I think I'd like much faster unit-training times and fewer champions (or, as noted above, constraints -- based on INT and/or CHA -- on how many champions will follow you). My general tactical approach tends to be Spell Blast + champions with bows, which tends to wipe out all opposition until late in the game when I face armies with serious armor and honking big hammers. Instead, I should be able/forced to build armies comprising one or two champions and a lot of units.
I'd also like units to be upgradable.
I do like the 4-man units, but they strike me as unbalanced. I had a squad of archers take on a small pack of wolves. The unit attacked one wolf and wiped it out with an overwhelming group attack. The remaining three wolves wiped out the unit, which was unable to respond or divide its attack ability among the various targets.
FWIW. ..bruce..
