It sounds like a lot of you are playing the game "Tournament". The problem with tournament is that it has been giving away far to much kp. Forcing people to do it primarily for that reason. I can't imagine a lot of you actuallt think it's fun to send the 5 same squads to battle hundreds of times.
By offering much less kp tournament will be a more normal part of play. Maybe there is no need to build your city only to maximize tournament score.
There are other parts of the game too
When I started to play this game, about 4 years ago, first city was in En2 and after some months in En1. Once I hit guests races I started to develop them differently. En2 was the fighter, En1 was the negotiator, because, as you said, I thought are different parts of the game, all helping a player to develop his/her city. After another year, with the path set by Inno, I found myself with a crippled city in En1, was hard to get decent scores in Tournaments, cause always I was limited by Orcs. Eventually I switched that city to fighting because THIS WAS THE PATH what Inno wanted us to follow!!!! (and with this changes, I will quit playing in En1 [even tho the city is in ch.16] and in En3 too, cuz I lost the fun.)
What you are saying it's like blaming the victim. We did what we supposed to do in the terms set by Inno. It took me years to adjust everything to those terms > KPs instants instead of normal KPs, Seeds depending on the total amount of Wonder levels. I developed a whole strategy to grow my city, to get the best out of this game, I spent money to buy diamonds for what???? To get a hard kick in the rear for all those things?
So, show me what are the other parts worth spending time playing this game? Upgrading stuff > taking days, collecting/ restarting production > oh yeah, very entertaining indeed, the Spire > crippling your troops or depleting your stocks? What else is to do in this game???