If Russia did start with an extra 50W, would it make that much of a difference? Most Russian players chop for a BH anyways in transition to 2, so it’s not like a faster BH in age 1 dramatically increases the threat of the forward BH anyways. If anything, it slightly helps with the slow early eco b/c you can get hunting dogs faster or gather for another house a little faster. But I don’t think it breaks Russia imo.
I do think 1 extra villager would be great to help cover the awkward TC idle gap in age 2 and more smoothly enable a 2nd batch of military units.
I think it’s justified because Russia is already in a disadvantaged place: since the game leans towards FF/FI play, rushing in age 2 already isn’t as viable and Russia’s age 3 play really isn’t as competitive as others.
The effects of Russia’s eco scaling don’t even come into play until much later, assuming you’ve managed to survive the Age 3 timing attack, find 1000W for 2 more TCs, and then manage to allocate enough villagers to sustain villager production for 3 TCs, etc…
As coffeeco01 has tested, an extra villager seems to help but is not dramatically impacting the Russian opening, pushing Russia to OP or anything -