These last wars in WP have spurred a lot of conversation about the whole production abuse things that have remained consistent between S2 and S3. Someone proposed last season that we would use a factory system instead, which got shot down by the player base almost immediately. I think we should try to refine something to make it comprehensible and efficient at controlling the crazy numbers.
We can do the factory system but with a few caveats giving special circumstances a bonus to production. Religious motivations, mechanized work force, fighting a much larger foe (for balance purposes / nationalism), etc. I think it's just gotten to the point where it's almost a requirement we introduce this.
The other option is we just raise the hell out of the maintenance modifier, but that would mean we need to keep track of all that, which we don't really have the time or manpower for.