Round table

For those who are not very familiar with TE, I should note that even the most "hardcore players" rarely take Dragon Utopias on the second week in SoD.

Pash, I slightly disagree. Read the reports of Paladin, who plays TE much less than SoD, but nevertheless, he took Dragon Utopias on the second week then and still does. Of course, it doesn't happen that often, since you still have to find a Dragon Utopia :) , and there might not be enough free meat for this, but it's not that rare.
Regarding experience, I agree that taking Dragon Utopias has become many times easier with it. But the insane pace is facilitated by CONSISTENTLY GOOD starting troops in TE. That is, on the first week you can achieve things that in SoD are not always possible even on the second. Using Tiraxor level 1, I took a level 111 dwarf settlement to 100 without losing a single wolf and with additional growth from now - using only starting troops (30-35 wolves, some orcs and gobs). Samurai, if my memory serves me correctly, was leveling up Tirasik to level 14 on the first week. On the other hand, in SoD, an insane pace can be achieved as Gosha or Shakti. But due to the wide variance of starting troops in SoD, it can also turn into a complete disaster.