The reasoning for all this is the same as driving a car...
At a stoplight, your car isn't moving and it takes a LOT of energy to get it going back up to highway speeds. @ 60 mph though, it' fairly steady state - your car sips a fraction of the cost of the fuel that it took to get it to 60 - to keep it there. It's the same with heat pump energy usage and design, or even EVs.
Inno is chronically targeting new players and catering to mining them as a base with products and design energy, because they SPEND money to accelerate their game, to get into the 60 MPH group we are ALL NOW IN as veteran players. New players don't want it to take years to get to where we are @ 60 mph, so they are very willing, and able to spend REAL MONEY (as they're not established with any diamonds, or at least very few...).
Once they get their city and game to 60 though (where most of us NOW are) - we (and they) don't need to spend as much or ANYTHING. Our cities are efficient, we've created (possibly) diamond farms, and can easily get diamonds in all the game venues - to pay our way. The city game engines need very little.
So it's real simple:
New players spend 1) more, 2) a lot 3) enough
and
Veteran players spend 1) less 2) little, 3) nothing.
Fix that - and ROBUST game innovation might be coaxed to begin again in earnest.
Right now, Inno is investing in the best places to fish for $$$ in the best section of game demographics - one that we all know yields the highest return. The novice community. Veteran players whine a lot, and don't spend at all, or nearly as much per-capita as a group of new players. We've arrived, and new players still think the game is "MEGA EXCITING"
And to prove my point, yes - we all grouse at starting a new city, but it's a LOT more exciting to do that even knowing how to play, then doing the same thing over and over and over again each day - as a veteran player. Not much you need to do in SAJM to keep your city rolling along @ 60 mph....
If Inno could figure out how to get us veteran players to spend, they would. They really would. But it's much more complex than getting new players to spend (which they liberally do). So that's the path that's most productive, and least resistant
Think about this strategically as a person that owns a business, NOT tactically as a player. It make abundant sense.