A game without diplomats=nothing changed

My initial idea was to remove the bribe ability from the diplomats after a rather irritating incident involving a AS elder statement and a brand new Legion. That was a failure; the ability is probably hardcoded.

Incensed, I proceeded to remove ALL diplomats from the game (edb) except the initial starting characters (descr_strat).

Playing as SPQR, 200 turns later, I noticed that nothing changed. Nothing. The factions developed (or refused to) in the usual way, the usual suspects engaged in the usual wars and no one seemed to miss them.

I wonder, since diplomacy is already problematic and EBBS sets war conditions that the AI can hardly manage why do we really need them around.

Even from the aspects of trade and income EBBS deals with the AI's monetary problems and usually the initial diplomat is enough to make peace treaties and obtain trade rights at the beginning of the game.

Another idea I entertain is to leave them in game, recruitable only in huge cities (maybe with added conditions) and an incredibly long recruitment time so they don't spam the map.