Plus I think they both used starlanes for some reason. I'm not sure why all the space 4x games are doing that now but I don't like it
The last 4x game I played that I truly enjoyed came out in 2014. They had the genre mostly figured out when MoO2 came out in 1996 (beyond the things nobody seems to be able to figure out, like AI that doesn't have to cheat, or a functional diplomacy system, lol).
All you need is (in my opinion- YMMV):
1- a procedurally generated "sandbox" to eXplore and eXploit.
2- a manageable difficulty curve (too many games, like Age of Wonders, seem to think that the "endgame" should have this massive difficulty spike).
3- truly interesting and unique play options with balanced advantages and disadvantages, giving you endless replay ability.
4- enough space to allow multiple paths to success (a diplomatic/pacifist victory, total annihilation, seizing and holding a vital resource, etc. etc..).
5- some quality of life options, like being able to quickly keep track of what your growing empire is up to, being able to automate certain tasks if necessary, so that individual turns don't take hours if you're playing with other real humans.*
*a big problem with a lot of game developers is that, despite all evidence to the contrary, they seem to view turn-based games in general as some kind of aberration- surely, players must want to quickly make decisions in real time, because if they're not constantly having to press buttons, they'll fall asleep!
And yet, despite having the blueprint of some truly excellent games to use as a foundation, developers keep wanting to reinvent the wheel, when a lot of times, all players really want is more of what works!**
**well, at least that's all I want. I do know people who desperately need flashy bells and whistles, because it their console/PC isn't forced to run at capacity, they break out in hives or something.