Voting on whether to ban the mapmaker and the Fortress faction.

Well, you need to pick a sum such that saving up for it is difficult and comes at a great cost to development, but remains feasible. A variety of strategies: you see the cartographer - and decide whether to play him or focus on development.

Another option: the longer the game lasts, the more expensive the cartographer becomes. For example, 10k in the first week, plus 10k for each subsequent week. 10k in the first week is a significant sum, and to buy a map, you'd have to forgo building level 7 structures, for instance. While spending 30k from the Dragon Utopia on the third week would be more pleasant on an upgrade, for example... In any case, it will be felt.
As for the pillars, I also believe it is better to bring the grail back into the game than to get rid of them.