I understand that there may be some reports from frustrated players who quit the game because they couldn’t beat the AI, but there’s no solid evidence that “a lot of people” have a negative impression and/or abandon the game because of that. RTS games have always been known for being quite challenging. And if I had to put forward a hypothesis, I’d say that having engaging campaigns is far more effective for player retention.

Continuing with the civ decal's next one is hellenic civilizations.  

Fixed in ModernGUI https://gitlab.com/4trik/ModernGUI/-/commit/7286640d11c85197e1c345dd720dd0e730b76cd0   Proposed fix for vanilla https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/pulls/8880

Decals mod for test, rome almost done. Starting with hellenic's civilization then persian's: decals.7z  

Hen file for test purpose: hen.7z