The game is in a messy spot right now. It’s not easy figuring out what you should be doing with the resources (I still don’t know how workers are allocated/migrate) while the AI without a mod doesn’t know either. Crisis/Fallen Empires don’t follow the normal rules, so they (mostly) present the challenge they’re supposed to at the difficulty level… except 2 of the end crisis and bugged too and stop expanding without the same mod. All while the game has #TODOs in the AI files and lags a fair bit.
So, yeah, your game is typical at the moment. Use the mod, Luke.