It is not hypothetical.

I don't know if you know the mod, Extented Greek Mod, or XGM.

XGM Mod uses the religion feature from BI1.6 as culture feature. There is Western European culture, Eastern European culture, Eastern Culture, Barbarian culture. And Whenever you capture a settlement of new culture, you can build buildings that convert the population into specific culture.

Also they applied the "Nomadic" feature from BI, too. They gave the ability to Barbarian factions such as Gauls to convert into nomadic tribe when they have only 1 settlement left.

See, If EB can use this features like XGM mod team, EB can be more fun mod i think