Thus far every system is a downgrade. It ruins replayabillity.

for me i like the new system more. upgrades count as a "new unit "that is fixed in its purpose. not something the player made by equiping stuff.

new system is better. it takes less clicks to upgrade units. Though it still fills like a chore. i need a button to upgrade all units in pack by one click. I'm tire of doing 3-5 clicks each time i need to upgrade a unit.

Like the new system, UI for it is clunky though

Agreed. I just reinstalled Endless Legend to experience it all over again.

That's exactly how it works:
First, the game's lead designers create a general concept for the future product and look for investors to hire a team to develop it.
The initial plan in games like these is to create a game that will be played multiplayer by many players, essentially an improved and expanded version of a board game. Board games don't generally track players' time, especially strategy games. Everyone has their own speed. But in computer games, most people do track their time. And so they release a long game, games of which can last days and weeks... Many foolish customers start complaining, "There's too much unnecessary micromanagement," "Why upgrade every unit? It's stupid!" "I'd rather go play Dota!" - This is what developers encounter in reviews... These reviews reach the eyes of "control groups" and "game experts" who write reports to investors explaining "what needs to be done to increase sales of the product they invested their money in"... What do investors tell the developer? Correct: "Remove everything unnecessary! Make the game for a wider audience! We need profit, or you'll be left not only without a salary but also without a job!"
They release a new product with "bug fixes according to management," removing the unfortunate improvements to every time-consuming unit... What do we get in reviews? Correct: "Why did you remove my favorite system?" "It was better before!" "Hey, hello, those who complained can't be brought back! You're losing those who remained loyal to you!"...
Something like that... Of course, this is a caricature and a sketch and can't claim to be accurate, but I'm more than confident that it's true...

go figure out how to fix people brains and logic and behaviour in each of these groups to fix such problems...

that is why you need a "visioner" at leading the the project, who can make a proper plan for the project, that will hit the right audience and will answer to the board or he should be a board himself...like larian did...but that is the hardest path for extreeme people with highest skill level...not for everyone...so we have such devs like this one...who can't do sh** tbh...they just glue up assets under the command of few people who can't coordinate a full picture of the end product in a corporative way, so they work with investors directly and just end up asking every passing dog about oppinion "what should be done with their project"....i mean it is hillarious when you understand this situation at this point...just go to their discord server and waste few days to read that nonsense and how they gather feedback...how can you gather it when you silence rage or mockery people? They are the best critics possible, they somehow point out problems in general and not in particular... If you only listen to "snowflakes", then you will only end up with a product for snowflakes... and they are not a mass audience... i.e., ideally, investors should intervene and slam their slippers on the table... but they either don't understand, or they themselves are snowflakes... (Why snowflakes? Because they melt at the slightest heat (stressful situation), starting to knock everyone with their authority in their kingdom... try to tease or criticize them - an instant permanent ban...) So how do you communicate with such people? No one in their right mind would kiss their asses... that's why most players pass them by... that's why they have such a bad reputation... people just have a bad memory to remember every little incident... but overall, their product speaks for itself: it's raw, like caviar at the spawning grounds... it still has to mature, grow, and swim before it's caught, gutted, and put on the counter... and people are already paying for it... well... the world is full of idiots...

引用自 Leaf：

for me i like the new system more. upgrades count as a "new unit "that is fixed in its purpose. not something the player made by equiping stuff.

Isn't it insanely cool and unique that you could make your own individual army though? I would absolutely love to make my very own units with individual armor parts, individual weapons and individual training. And of course my units would serve purpose, even in theory I would need tank, healer, ranged unit and DPS. The only difference is - those would be my own units of my own creation. Which is, again, cool. Even cooler would be if you could paint them and select equip variations.

I would expect development of the idea rather than downgrading to something that exists in numerous other games. Oh well, hopefully new version of Fallen Enchantress keeps this feature and improves AI:
https://psteamproxy.yuanyoumao.com/app/3796960/Elemental_Reforged/

Yes, it is. Instead of improving and enriching game's features they send all of them to the chopping block.

I much prefer it because I don't care to spend 10 upgrading unit load outs every time I unlock something new. It lets me spend more time doing 4x in my 4x game plus it lets the game be better balance between factions and units not needing to take into account any possible broken set up that might be made with all the gear and units.