on some level, I agree. The civ board game was absolutely simplified to be suitable for one-off sessions, but the underlying mechanics are undeniably an entry in the Civilization universe. It works well as a board game because civ is inherently a board game with more advanced mechanics, designed to be played by AI and a single player that must master all of those advanced mechanics. Simplifying the game into a one-shot board game does require skill on behalf of the game designers, but it’s still the same game