blizzards RTS games are intentionally this way, especially starcraft.
They take time as a resource and overload the player with tasks so that he will never be able to do everything he wants and thus has to make quick decisions on what to do and what to let slide.
Ofcourse, this creates a stressful game, but its also the first game that had 2 dedicated TV stations broadcasting it all day to millions.

Other games like this just use the real time element for gameplay reasons. :)

Kohan 1 is more like Civ, in that you can plant cities wherever you wish as long as they're not too close to each other. This is more like Battle for Middle-Earth in that there are specific spots to take. The neutral lairs aren't random in what they grant you, they're specific.