"and it'll make the bigger players even more powerful"
I don't think that's the case actually. The reason those player became so good is because they were able to micromanage their farms as crazy. So while games might become more intense in other fields, the skill level difference will remain the same.
Managing farms became even more insane with the increased population limit anyway. Instead of doing things that actually mattered from a strategic or tactical viewpoint, most game time was just sunk into the very monotone and frustrating task of managing farms.
There is still plenty to do regarding economy either way. Resources deplete quickly so you need to find new resource locations and rebuild drop off points, you need to rebuild your economy after each raid, you need to constantly pump out more villagers, ...
Now us regulars will have a bit more time to manage our armies and think about smart strategies, while in the meanwhile our economy doesn't immediately go down the drain.
Imo the casual player will benefit greatly from this change and it will lower the threshold for players new to the game.
Edit:
I do agree that the game will feel less like the game we played when we were young but that was already the case for me and sticking to this one frustrating aspect of the game wouldn't have solved that.
[This message has been edited by Jan dc (edited 04-08-2019 @ 10:51 AM).]