That's a pretty good analysis of where the issue is
Another problem with this big increase in power is that our cities will reach saturation and in my case already has reached saturation. Past week I deleted my level 89 Arc, personal achievement as I never liked that building as it gets the worst attitude out of some players. But the fact is that I don't need the Arc anymore. The only use I had for the Arc for more than a Year, was for the guild goods but I'm already overproducing them for my needs since a while. My 3 SAT GB's are 59 and should be all three 60 before the end of this week. So now what, level those 3 GB's to 80, 90, 100? But for what purpose as I'm already saturated in blue and red attack/defense for my needs. QI as a P2W loner is cakewalk with already 4 full settlement buildings, still 2 to go wip + forgotten temple. But QI is giving me gold upgraded Colossus (more red and blue A/D, guild goods, ...) and little buildings giving me more of what I'm already saturated in . All my remaining useful GB's are at the level they truly are useful, job done and no reason to dump even more levels on them.
I always regretted deleting my Colosseum and Oracle so put them back up. Colosseum at this moment level 74 and Oracle stuck, no prints left, at 20 and that's with buying the missing prints up to level 20. Because esthetics matter too and because I simply don't know what to put up in m city I will rank up my Lotus Temple (level 2 atm) and my Arc replacement, Space Needle (level 1 atm) sky high as I've no other buildings to drop my daily 5K-6K+ fps.
On this discussion topic. I don't partake in this event because I don't like the mini-game or whatever. I don't do this event because I don't need anything from this event. And with this power creep many of you will reach this point as it's not if but simply when. And except for the top 10 guilds for prestige and bragging this will also be the fate of QI in the future. And I'm stacked in diamonds at the moment.