That is exactly what I meant—it's foolish to waste the only autosave on such trifles, as it's better to save it for a truly hopeless situation

Dirty didn't write stupid things. They can decide the match; I've read in reports so many times that someone unexpectedly found a Dragon Utopia in the very corner, and then everything magically changes.

Allowing Autosaves tempts players to "cheat" (viewing the map or buildings) and only increases the freedom for cheaters (even honest players will start thinking there's nothing wrong with viewing something if autosave is allowed); autosave doesn't affect anything except increasing the time per turn.