That is only partially true.
Early economic bonuses are only the "bane of RTS'" as you say, if, and only if, some but not all civilizations receive them. AoE and AoK ended up having a few civs with early econ bonuses, and others with later econ or military bonuses. What ended up happening is that while the military bonuses were nice, they could nowhere come close to the economic ones.
Why were the Chinese so popular? Because of their extra vils and cheaper techs. What about the Vikings? Cheaper docks and ships did the trick. Mongols? Their hunting bonus was an incredible speed boost.
Basically, all of this ended up leaving civs like the Turks in the dust.
ES has learned from its mistakes. Bigdog has commented on their new philisophy for AoM, which IMO is very accurate, that states: if every civ is a "screw," then the game is well balanced. Let's take a look at the civs of AoM: EVERY culture has something going for them economically, and every god within a culture has something as well:
GREEKS: START WITH EXTRA VILLAGER
Zeus: Starts with favor and gains favor faster
Poseidon: Lure GP, cavalry and stable cost less (partially military but partially economic as well), and market use costs less.
Hades: Vaults of Erebus provides steady gold (OK, admittedly that's weak compared to others, but Hades also gets free units and sentinels, which allow him to compete with faster civs).
NORSE: OX CARTS AND DWARVES
Thor: Dwarves cost less gold, are trained faster, and have better food/wood gathering rates. Dwarven Armory is cheaper, and armory techs are cheaper. Pig sticker makes hunting faster (especially for large animals like elephants). Dwarven mine provides a bit of free, easy gold for dwarves in early game, or a free extra gold pile in late game.
Odin: Faster hunting + Great Hunt. Enough said here!
Loki: His speed comes from cheaper/faster ox carts, faster Longhouses, and cheaper MUs.
EGYPTIANS: EARLY FARMING AND PHAROAH
Ra: Pharoah empowers faster, priests empower. Cheaper monuments, and rain for better farming.
Isis: All techs, including age advancement, are cheaper. Prosperity helps with gold mining, and flood of the nile, gives extra food income.
Set: Animals! Priests convert them, pharoahs summon them, and you get 5 free ones at the Temple every time you age up. Not to mention starting with a hyena (although that will be used for scouting instead of eating).
Overall, every civ has something going for it to ensure that it will not be left in the dust, like previous civs have. Ra's early farming bonus can be powerful, but it is not unbalancing. You put Ra into a category with the Mongols and Chinese, which is a flawed argument at best. The Mongols and CHinese were in a class of their own, since no other civs had economic bonuses to compete with them. In AoM, _every_ culture, and god, has economic bonuses of some sort.
Remember: If every civ is a "screw" then the game is balanced. You just have to learn how to "exploit" each one. Honestly, I would not be surprised if, in the first month of release, there will be dozens of posts here, some proclaiming that Odin's hunting bonus is unbalanced, some complaining that Isis is a screw with her cheaper age-up and techs, while others denouncing Poseidon's lure as ruining the game.
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