Understanding that hindsight is 20/20, I wonder what might have been if instead of AoE:DE the team developed AoE:HD.
The download and installation size would be significantly reduced. There are very few PC gamers who game at 4K 60 FPS, so the need for every player to download 4K textures wastes bandwidth. It does not make sense to remaster a 20 year old game with a download of 17 GB while new games with much higher detail do not consume anywhere near as much storage space.
Less development time would have been required. No need to completely replace every single art asset in the game. Focus on creating key quality of life features, tweak balance and fix bugs.
The original feel of the game would have been preserved in the truest sense.
Use the opportunity of revisiting AoE to promote the UPatch HD mod to encourage the modding community and make sure the game has full mod support as well.
I could go on and on here, but I think you get my point. I feel that AoE:HD would have been a better path.