Funny you wrote that Geo, I opened a few days ago a game for me and 2 friends with no trades/alliances etc..etc... But we left the units and ship limits to high level. Anyway the settings seem very similar.
In our game the AI are just hindrance, while with a *5 bonus, they can be deadly, especially with patch 1.84. So I disagree with this setting, the main goal should be survive other human players, not survive the AI.
Last with this setting, the game is a direct onslaught. Few roleplay, much fighting.
It's a style.