Round table

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 have to find a Dragon Utopia first:) , 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 starting troops in TE contribute to the insane pace. That is, on the first week you can do things that in SoD aren't always possible even on the second. I took a level 1 Tiraxor into a level 111 dwarf settlement at 100 without losing a single wolf. If my memory serves me correctly, Samurai was leveling up little Tiras to level 14 during the first week.