I have a suggestion to change the template.

First, make the villages on the respawn native. This would at least provide some semblance of an economy. Options would appear - whether to build a bunch of lower-tier troops or invest in higher-tier ones. You'd have to look at the layout of the resource caches to see what's more profitable. Right now, the economy is simple - we collect free money and build a 7th dwelling with a Citadel/Castle. It's boring. At the same time, it would increase balance among factions - building a 7th dwelling wouldn't be as mandatory.

I think it's not worth it.
Having non-native villages actually creates options. Let me explain.
I recently played Jebus Cross Dungeon against Castle...
Things were going really badly, and Lorelei and a stack of Troglodytes were given, but I turned it around only because on day 3 I captured a Barbarian village, built Behemoths on day 5, etc.
Or, playing against the same Castle, on day 2 I took a Castle town as a secondary and built Angels there, and upgraded them on day 2. In short, this is where I see the diversity, and native villages, I think, would only slow the game down.