Sunsmountain, so do you avoid commanding armies with your generals? This is not a tweak, but a fix of something that was obviously broken. It was already possible to get upto 7 star Admirals through ancilliaries, you simply couldn't earn and lose stars through combat.

Before casting judgement why not actually try it? You'll perhaps be surprised to find that you can attack with a 9 star Admiral and still not automatically destroy an enemy fleet... sure you'll be far more likely to win, but that's no different than autocalcing with a 9 star General.

And the AI also benefits from this, perhaps even moreso since it is less likely than a player to pick up the +2 Command Navigator ancilliary which requires you to use 100% of a fleet's movement allowance to trigger, something the AI often neglects when it leaves ships static for turn after turn. I used to combat the occasional 1 or 2 star enemy fleet, once I went up against a 4 star, with this fix I regularly encounter 3 and 4 star foes and am currently sweating that one of my transport fleets will be caught by an Egyptian 6 star before I can transfer one of my main battle fleets to the eastern Mediterranean. From that evidence I'd say the AI very much has a chance.