The map pack has a few new stamps but it isn't going to drastically alter the random generation of map. The map pack's primary benefit is a series of maps of various sizes that aren't random.

I've done all 3 and I'm usually happy - ecomental, map pack and liberal dosing of ctrl-n.  I like to cheat and have my starting location be at least a 3-3-2, with more production preferred (3-4-2).

I'm actually going to go the other way - managing 15 or so cities is kind of a pain... along with clearing the enemies 15 or so.  I think I'm going ravaged next time.

They really should implement a "Legendary start" option. That was always my favorite for Civ5 and going tall. With some tweaks to the game and that, we might look at a going tall option here as well instead of pioneer spam everywhere.