@Polycarp5195 I think you put your opinion about the dark age as truth. I think many players disagree with those statements.
I think the dark age is full of strategic decisions. In that age you lay the foundation for the future ages. Mistakes in the early age will end up in the end. Also the scouting and everything is part of the strategic decisions you do in the early game. I dont think many pros will agree with your statement that the early game is boring, because there are almost no strategic decision to make.
I also dont really think there will be immediately a large player base for EW. It is in the game for some time, but it never got much traction. Yes, the pro played some tournaments but that was only because there was a large prize pool. After those tournament they just went back to RM. The same happened with DM tournaments. The pros just start playing DM for a while, before they go back to RM after the tournament. Even in the mean time they play still RM.
Also RM is the standard for over 20 years. There is a reason for that. Many players are players who just play this game for years. They are used to RM. I dont see many instant switching to the EW ladder. Yeah, when the introduce this ladder, many will give it a try, but in the end i think most go back to RM, not many will stay. I also have not seen many EW games in the lobby (pre quick play). That shows that there isnt a big player base that wants to play EW.
On the other side i can see why lower rated player think the dark age is boring. They most likely pick a civ and pick their strat before they even start the game. Then the Dark Age feels pretty boring and i can see why you think EW sound much more fun. I must admit playing some EW sometimes can be really fun. It is a battle from the start. No time to full wall your base, but you have to defend with army.
I also think that the current design of Quick play is bad. Match making without ratings is useless. Currently Quick play is just some mode that is not quite Ranked and also not quite the Lobby. It has the worst things of both. So in the current set up EW and BR still wont get much attention. If the devs decides they want more attention for EW and BR, then the need to just delete Quick play and put EW and BR in the ranked queue. I made my own thread about the current issues with quick play. You can found this thread here:
Check your facts: almost 1000 players have played DM on the 1v1 ladder in the latest 28 days. The number of player on the DM TG ladder with at least a match in the latest 28 days is even just above 1000. Yes, this isnt many, but at least it is more then 100.