Age Transitions should make your Civ stronger

[drifting drift]

I typically play multi with my small group of friends (cross play is a godsend) I don't finish civ games cus I don't have time and starting over is more fun then trying to remember what old me was doing. The new Age transition makes it worst. Now all plans out the window pick a new civ but I don't want to pick a whole new civ. Bro there's an emotional connection with the civ i pick at the beginning. I spend this era learning its tricks and combo's building wonders with those bonuses in mind. I pick a leader to try to combo with the civ i pick in the beginning same with Pantheon. Why aren't they like wine they get better with age and don't say realism. Fun beats realism everyday of the week. So far Age transition makes me wanna be done even sooner. Part of the fun is when the plan comes together. Now I need to plan my early game for my second civ. Plus if you don't play your cards right and you will only have two civs to pick from. Not much of a choice team. Why forcing us to pick from a short list instead of power per age? Why such a heavy handed approach? Player agency and Immersion go straight out the window when y'all do that. Can we just get additional powers suitable for that age. You clearly know how to make the ability? Or if you choose to keep your civ then the civ or your leader gets a tier two ability. You know how in magic the gathering Planeswalkers have those different loyalty abilities it could be something like that.

[uncut basalt]

Funny that you mentioned Magic. I am an avid MTG player, an avoid board gamer, and a fan of games like Slay The Spire. I find Civ 7 to be the most fun game in the series, because it scratches the same itch as a "deck builder" or a "strategic board game".

Regarding your planeswalker analogy you can already do that.
You can play 3 flavours of China in one run. That's like playing 3 Jace planeswalker cards with different abilities.

The game isn't being heavy handed, it's giving you the freedom to play with a bunch of different civ combinations.
If it just represented these as abilities, then what about new units, what about new buildings, what about new Civic tree? You want 1 civ across the whole game? That means less unique stuff per civ.

Each civ isn't going to have antiquities, exploration AND modern unique units, buildings, and civics. Some civs don't even exist during certain periods so there would be no historical content to draw from.

[drifting drift]

Oh you just gave me an idea they should let you keep one of your abilities or unit to carry over then so then they get to keep that sense of identity going forward

[surreal bane]

You already get to keep the traditions (unique social policies) of your civs from previous ages

[somber mesa]

You also keep unique buildings and improvements and they are ageless. (If you built them).