It's quite frightening when Brian and I agree about anything. However, I have long made this point, including in a post on this old thread: https://forum.illyriad.co.uk/production-rates-vs-levels-for-newbs_topic10885_post107839.html" rel="nofollow - https://forum.illyriad.co.uk/production-rates-vs-levels-for-newbs_topic10885_post107839.html
I did a calculation a number of years ago that demonstrates the "payback period" in resources is much shorter for lower-level resource buildings and declines precipitously. This is even more true for the boost buildings, which require substantially more research to finish. However, this increase in resource production is not particularly relevant for newbies who are being fed resources by outsiders; anything that comes in caravans dwarfs the city's own production.
Another factor to consider, if one is building without outside help, is the food consumption of resource plots. If one is building a balanced city economy, it's better to minimize population (and thus food consumption) at the outset in order to avoid having to spend resources on building farms. Higher level resource plots produce more of a resource per unit of food consumed than do lower-level plots, with one caveat. Upgrading non-food plots from level 1 to level 2 does not increase food consumption (both level 1 and level 2 plots consume one food per hour).
My practice in starting a new city without outside help is to level all non-food resource plots evenly to level 2, which can be done with the original resources provided by the tutorial. I then continue leveling resources evenly within each type, but in such a manner as the resource production is equal for all the resource (so playing elf I level up clay plots higher and wood plots slightly lower, for example).
In terms of unlocking research, I find that there are more than enough other researches to complete in the first few days of play that unlocking the resource boost buildings and then subsequent resources is not a high priority. The clay and stone resource paths don't unlock research that's likely to be useful in the first few days of play when resources are scarce. (Walls are nice but unnecessary in the first seven days and not all that helpful in the first month or so usually, although there are edge cases.) Being able to make one's own sword, chain, and bows is cool but it's usually more efficient to build cottages and use the proceeds from cotters to buy them.
With regard to building population and therefore having more cities, this is fun for some players but not all. There's a pretty substantial dropoff in player engagement after the second city is founded, and another one (although not quite as sharp) after the founding of the third city. Pushing all new players toward founding more cities quickly is perhaps not the best strategy for retention -- although some players enjoy this challenge immensely.
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