The way I see it, what they're trying to do is build upon elements that can be more fun and downgrade the ones that aren't that interesting. Do you know what part of diplomacy has been downgraded exactly?
I really like the fact they replaced religion and government types with the social thingy that basically combines the two into one element. The Tradition option for example has things like Monarchy as a path in the tree, though I always go with the Honour one as I love waging war in Civilization games.
Nearly completed a game last night, was playing for about 12 hours straight. Invaded Russia and France (for their Iron deposits). I made them into puppet states and use their Iron to build my samurai and catapults which helped bring down the massive Russian empire at that point. Only the Arabs are left, and they were being bullied by the Russians so compared to my last adversary they are just a bug waiting to be squashed.