At first, I didn't liked this new settlement at all, but maybe it isn't as bad as it seems.
The cost for roads is an added challange, but so far it didn't hindered me. For Japanese and Vikings, this modification was unnecessary. They were hard enough without this too. As for Egypt, Deben is not needed for production. It is needed for the fights (because of the units), but easy and medium can be beaten without heavy losses (I didn't tried hard yet as the loot from these two are plenty enough currently). I do not consider myself a good fighter yet I managed to win these with minimal losses. And if losses are minimal, the Deben used for recruiting is also minimal in opposition to Japanese and Vikings where production also needs the settlement currency. While reconstruction mode would help a lot, it isn't impossible to progress fairly without it. Mobile on the other hand is another topic. I honestly don't know, how to rearrange the settlement from it without serious disadvantages, so this is still a problem that should be addressed.
As for the impediments, it seems horrible at first sight, as no empty expansions are available excluding the starting area. But I had runs on Vikings and Japanese, where I got nearly zero empty expansions, and rock positions were horrible too. Yet I managed to finish them within the time frame (yes, I slept, I worked, and sometimes I forgot the whole settlement - maybe it was because I got lucky with 4x ?). There was only one or two run at the last stages of Vikings where I couldn't beat the first timer. Whereas we got removal tools for this, which can be used wisely to clean a big area in every run, resulting guaranteed expansions without impediments, and we can choose where they are. This was not possible in Vikings and Japanese and we had to live with the rocks if we weren't lucky with the initial arranging.
The training time of the army shocked me first too, but if you can minimise the losses, it shouldn't be a problem. Yes, manual battles are needed, maximum 3 a day. For those who cannot battle without autofight, this could be very challanging, but hey, autofight isn't meant to replace battles. If someone do autofights only because of the lack of success in manual battles and in negotiations, then maybe this game is not for her/him. And settlements are not required to play for progressing in the game. Or GVG should be removed, because many pepople do not like it? They simply ignore it as it isn't needed for progressing. Same with GE and GBG. This is a feature which can be used optionally.
But the 27 day long run could be a problem. If I screwed Japanese or Vikings, in the worst case I lost like 10 days of progress. Now if I have something urgent to do after 25 days and cannot finish it in time, I lose triple the time for this. Possible solution would be if settlements could be paused. While paused, it's not accessible but it isn't progressing and do not count the time.
As for the rewards, the Obelisk is a good SoK replacement, but it isn't necessarily worth the invested time. 4 perfect runs for one means nearly 4 month. It's way too long. The Bathhouse itself is not bad, but it definitely isn't something we should get for this hardcore settlement. I think some rebalancing would needed or not too many players will do this settlement if they have other things to do.
) and thinking if I can do it more smart. (I quote myself from st Patricks comment: "It seems like some think that by logging in once a day for some minutes they will get their city up and running with the greatest rewards")