[Sammas]

Say you have 4 cities and a gold mine, and your opponent has 5 cities. Pretty even. But if you lose one city, even for a single turn, you lose the game. Cities already provide economic and hiring advantages - why should they also be used as victory conditions? The only plausible reason is that it saves time in killing the enemy off completely. But then 75% or 80% would suffice.

Capitals provide for a non-linear victory condition. You don't have to be winning the economic war to win by capital capture. But city count victory is just another linear constraint on strategy. It makes impossible any strategy where your city count might dip to 1/3 for even a single turn. That is not a good thing, imo.

(Yes I do rush capital with Legendmakers sometimes. But that's about the only time that capital-taking becomes even feasible. You don't see many games won by capital taking.)