Personally I like having multiple leaders of a civ available, each with their own unique bonuses and therefore playstyle. So you get to choose a civilization you will play as (which influences starting location etc) and then the leader themselves which will further affect gameplay.
Trying to get a nice geographic spread, so I’m missing a few staples, but I think they can wait for DLC, it’s my philosophy that diversity should be less of an afterthought 😅