I still don't agree. My second last remark included, or at least was inteded to include, that the ships enable you to strike at places or at times otherwise impossible. This really speeds up your campaign, and allows for more strategy, and thereby for more fun in the game.

This is something only humans are able to figure out, (with the exception of the Greek Cities in Vanilla), and therefore it's nothing more than sound to make it harder, as this measure only affects the human player.

In other words, it's a good thing that ships aren't dirt cheap.

On the other hand there is the Realism bit, which demands that ships be very expensive.

For me it's fine the way it is, those who consider ships to be rather worthless won't use them, and therefore won't have trouble to pay for them (as they simply don't use them really), and to those who like them they're now a more mature part of the game.