I'll abstain on voting. I'm not too familiar with MA Ulm and EA Agartha so I can't judge their overpoweredness (or lack of it). LA Ermor and R'Leh are a huge annoyance to fight against, but they are beatable... So "abstain on voting" is my call
On the other hand, independents 9 feels a bit much from what I've seen so far: The problem is that if one player is unlucky with the provinces surrounding their capital (all big nasty stacks), they might end up falling a turn or two behind the others during early expansion.