I want it for TCs. It’s a no-brainer, you always want your TCs producing vils until you have your eco maxed out. Yes, it’s a skill to manage and impacts the game - but it’s the equivalent of making you juggle IRL on a webcam every time you want to build a building. Yes, better jugglers have an advantage… but why do I have to worry about juggling in the first place? I don’t like having to keep track of it, or being penalized for forgetting about it, because it feels stupid. I always want the building doing the same thing. Everyone always wants the building doing the same thing.
It’s not even as big an APM requirement as it is in AoEII - vils train slower than AoEIV, and cost less, and you have fewer TCs to manage as well. In other words, it won’t fundamentally change the game, but it will get rid of what is nothing more than a minor, persistent annoyance.
It’s no different from auto-seeding farms in AoEII DE. No pro gives a ■■■■ about it being added, even if they may have had apprehensions at first. As others have said, the stress from managing TCs is not relevant at higher levels, but does impact low ELO gameplay… so effectively, it’s a bar to newer players, and has little to no effect on better players. A few people in mid-ELO range get a competitive advantage from it.
The best argument against it is that it could start a slippery slope of casualization… and the recent balance changes don’t give me confidence in the design vision of Relic for this game. So perhaps it needs to stay out for that reason. But if I can have it on its own I want it. Nobody will notice or care even a month after it’s implemented.
EDIT: But whatever you do, don’t split the matchmaking system into two groups of players using different mechanics. It’s better to have no autoqueue than to have the playerbase permanently divided over it. Give it to everyone, or give it to no one.