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Therefore, the room for error (and opportunity) has shifted a bit further—into the technique of exploring distant territories, clearing with spoons, leveling up several pops, army splitting, etc.

These are all elementary things that don't actually mean much. On XL+U, only 2 things truly matter: road junctions and the speed of obtaining control. On smaller maps, roads matter significantly less, and control is often banned. This brings to the forefront the ability to fight clean battles, efficient distribution of resources and heroes, and the ability to deviate from the standard XL+U strategy—level up a warrior (preferably a Logistician), take cons-hives-Dragon Utopia, get control, burn-kill-take cities. Here, you can also play into magic, and there is a choice between going for the treasure zone or consuming villages. But most importantly—there is no cheat-like control that ruins the game, but without which XL+U cannot be played.

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Example—if you have nothing on your respawn and a maxi-con at the only road to ГО, then the plan is obvious—spend 2 weeks scavenging around the respawn, running the pop through boosters, and on 131 with growth, rush the con and immediately to ГО. Even some participants of "Novice" could execute this. But a similar situation on XL+U would lead to pops trying to find a way to break the con on the 2nd week. And they most likely will. Moreover, someone will break it at 126, while another at 125. That is, the spectrum of options for intensifying the game is significantly larger, allowing skill to be shown.

Lol. Have you played this map? Balance is not Jebus Cross; here you can move to the center without breaking through ГО. And sitting there, consuming boosters for 2 weeks and waiting for growth to break 4 angels—that is a path to defeat. In general, on Balance, ГО is not 45k and it can be broken almost always on the 2nd week.