[Sombre]

I don't follow your logic. If one choice in a recruitable lineup is flat out superior to the others, qm has on numerous occasions hiked the price on the standout, or reduced its overall upside. See jomonese longbows. Unless you think he was trying to balance the awesome power of Jomon?

Obviously changes to Hinnom, Vanheim and Mictlan considered nation balance. But they were also about making the nation more varied within itself, in terms of strategic choices. If you have a sick, sick starting army compared with every other nation, it messes with nation balance, it's aesthetically weird and it also limits competitive strat choices.

Re: Giant nations and awake pretenders - There's also nothing inherent in giant nations that would make an awake pretender ridiculous. The reason it might be a bad choice is incidental to the characteristics of giants (recruitable thug commanders, high hp units, high str units, large size). It comes down to other attributes like having great expansion units, having units which thrive on a huge bless or not needing a rainbow to sitesearch early. Taking an awake pretender with Fomoria or Gath seems like a legit choice to me.