what are the reasons for the changes? and will it ruin the balance?
Off the top of my head, here is what will happen in the end: the game will become less varied. It'll be like on mininost where there's a division by zones, and then whoever gets the better deal. Especially if a convenient, beautiful Dragon Utopia comes along.
It can and should be tried, but I fear the main feature of the template will disappear
9k passages are an obstacle only during the 1st week; from the 2nd week onwards, they don't get in the way.