Idk. Can you think of any other game that rewards laziness? If you don't have enough time to deal with the politics that are essential to the game, maybe you shouldn't win?

I was watching my roommate play civilizations last night and at no point did I think, "boy wouldn't it be nice if everyone stopped trying hard and you could just grow your land area with free bot land." Like no. The biggest try hard with the best politics wins. That's how competition is created, and the game would literally be stupid if they inserted a bunch of free land.