As others have stated, it makes sense that a civilization would need to do some research into alien diplomacy. It's not a case of literacy but rather one of figuring out what makes other civilizations tick. That being said, the diplomacy system does need some work and if rumors are true it will be addressed in the 1.5 update.
[quote quoting="post"] As a non-anal retentive, non-min/maxer, non-hardcore player I believe that I firmly fall into the majority of players who would like to see the developer ignore any more posts about the wheel and move on. [/quote] And yet here you are doing just that. Creating another post about a topic you don't want to see discussed anymore. Riddle me that. ;)
I must confess, I never did get the point of having to fiddle with planetary or city spending policies in 4X games. I'm the Emperor for Pete's sake not the local bean counter. GalCiv is not the first nor the last game to implement this rather annoying gimmick that forces you to focus more on individual planets than on your empire as a whole. So good reddens to the wheel I say. Why the hell do I have governors then? In no sci-fi book, movie or TV series have I ever encountered a galact