Judging by the icons of units, devs certainly have very high quality unit models. Yet they rendered the units in x2 zoom only. AoE1 had x4 zoom graphics. Now that there is SLD graphics support the game has much better graphics compression. I believe x4 files would be at Max 100gb more. Which is nothing if you ask me for current game standards. Performance might be affected yes but in the long run this will increase the longevity of the game even more. Certainly PC processing power will improve over time. In my 4k or 8k monitor even 2x zoom is not enough. Just release it as a DLC like the UHD graphics. Whoever needs can download it.
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Ok here are some pictures to strengthen my argument.
This used to be before DE
This is AoE2 DE without UHD
This is AoE2 DE with UHD
This is AoE1 DE
This is the icon in AoE2 DE.
Analysis: We have certainly taken a huge leap in migrating to DE. But we can move a bit forward to match with AoE1 DE quality or higher. The icons in AoE2 DE suggest the devs do have high quality models of the units. All they need to do is to render them.
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AOE2 HD: 
AOE2 DE: 
AOE2 DE UHD: 
AoE1 DE: 
AOE2 DE RoR UHD: 
I have mentioned about this in my earlier post just before RoR release:
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How do you get those transparent background images?
holy shit lmfao. trust me, you are probably in the niche to think 100gb is not much considering internet and space but yes they can make this optional.
what I want more is actually give access to ROR/aoe1 graphics in Aoe2’s scenario editor, which is at most only 2-3 gb more.
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Modern games are all 100gb. I am probably exaggerating though, it might be much below 100. And download will be obviously further compressed so it will be somewhere around 40gb maybe.
not until they fix other bunch of bugs and improve the download speed from within the game. right now a 100-150MB size mod would take some players over 5 mins to download from within the lobby, or otherwise a lobby restore of save game of 10MB would take 1 minute to download.
once they fix that first then it might be an option
I think this is an overestimate. The x2 graphics are a little under 15gb in total, and at worst (depending how sld compression works) x4 graphics would be 4 times the size, so I think 60gb max.
I think the real limiting factor here is whether enough people would use x4 graphics to justify the expense of making them. Personally I support the idea, but I wouldn’t use it myself (don’t even use x2).
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I am worried about the longevity of the game. In a 4k monitor, x2 feels just right okeyish, x1 is just way too small even to select. Technology is rapidly growing at a fast pace. People are getting 4k or even 8k monitors. Current zoom options is rather limited.
People may not use it now but we need it in the long run.
You better hope the average consumer-end value for storage space improves faster than display tech and 3D-to-2D-sprite production times, then. Maybe a 100+ GB download costs nothing to you, but it’s a big ask for many players who already balk at that for games as high profile as the newest Call of Duty or GTA. 15 GB isn’t too bad for a 4K pack, yet that number will grow exponentially as the asset resolution grows in tandem with 8K, 16K, etc.
At a certain point, that’s also an incredibly diminishing return on investment for players and developers alike. Higher resolution, to me, entails increases for both detail and viewing area. And with Ludicrous+ maps chugging as they do, that means we’d be aiming for higher-res assets and resolutions that add very little to the main play experience. I think there are more pressing long-term issues for FE to focus on and actually address (insert pathfinding complaints here).
It’s gonna be an optional download obviously like UHD.