I think one reason they reduced the number of provinces was to make their economic model work - the feature of the game in which "towns" outside of the regional capital appear and offer a specific type of economic or cultural development. OTOH they deliberately included certain smaller provinces - such as Gibralter, Lorraine, and Malta because historically those regions were treasures fought over by the various powers. Taking the later into consideration they probably should have left Moldavia - Walachia and Temesvar as seperate provinces. IIRC during this area those later provinces changed hands back and forth between the Ottomans, the Austro-Hungarians and the Russians.