Effect of Upgrading on existing queues

Currently, if I set a queue of items (say cows) for a building (common ground) to produce, and then proceed to upgrade the building, the upgrades do not affect the existing queue. It still takes precisely as long as it did before the upgrade. 

It would be much more palatable if cancellations were supported, whether it be research, construction, resource production, unit recruitment, or missions recently launched.  Most other games support most or all of the above, and the lack here is a bit surprising and inconvenient.

I can't see how allowing cancellations and restarts would upset balance, especially when wanting to do so typically indicate either a blunder in lack of planning or a simple wish to keep operations busy while away.  And just to clarify, in the case of multi-unit queues, one would expect cancellation not to affect units of work (say livestock) already completed (not that it could really be done any other way).

I would fire the blacksmith who refused to staff the new wing of his smithy until all current work orders were completed.  That's just bad management.

Maybe just cancellation for things queued beyond the first production/research/build as they are not yet in progress?

It did later occur to me in connection to this that queuing stuff not actually desired is handy for sidestepping incoming attacks and thieves.  I don't personally have a problem with this.  This is in line with my earlier statements to the effect that there should be such substantial benefits to being around and paying attention, and that such things help restore the viability of competing without buying prestige.  People with less money often also have more time to commit...it's a balancing factor for most.  Also, in real-world sense, being aware that something is going down usually causes people to react in precisely this manner to precisely this effect.  Move your valuables, and the thieves break in for nothing.  That's exactly the sort of thing we do, individually and in larger scale operations.

However, if it were considered a problem anyway, one could always penalize cancellation with partial return of resources.  In many of the fair situations one would often be happy to throw away the spent resources entirely, just for the chance to produce more quickly or keep it out of the hands of enemies.  Going back to real-world analogy: how would one be completely unable even to say, "I don't care about any of this, just throw it all out and start something else."

Other benefits to canceling ability would be the opportunity to change your mind about what it is you actually want produced.  Have incoming diplomats?  Think they are thieves?  Cancel your scouts to build more thieves in time to help catch them.  Such ability again rewards in-game activity and attention, but doesn't require elimination of the cost-benefit tradeoff.