So that's the reason now, not noble population but total realm number? If so this is not effective for that either. As it was new realms getting founded was still rare. You prevent maybe one realm from forming every few years while three low population realms are sitting around on EC. If you want fewer realms the solution is to create a mechanism that makes it progressively harder to manage a realm with too few nobles, forcing them to eventually merge or die out.
The reason I care about the creation of new realms remaining a feature of this game is that quite simply, in the dozen years I've been playing Battlemaster, there has been no experience more thrilling or fulfilling than founding a new realm. I don't think I'm alone in feeling this.
Whenever I try to recruit a new player I almost always tell them about the colonizing period of Dwilight. Now, if I'm going to be honest with them I'll have to say "but that can't really happen anymore, maybe someday we'll get enough players...". That's the really sad thing. I got to have my fun but the next generation will probably never know what it's like.
The way you're describing things right now sounds like a very disappointing vision for the future of this game. If we eliminate the possibility for new realms then what happens to the old ones? One way or another they merge or get conquered until various existing mechanisms render further consolidation impossible. You'll reach a point where for all intents and purposes a realm can neither be created nor destroyed. So the whole game becomes fixed, stagnant. A few regions can change hands but there will be no serious consequences. The greatest draw of this game, the ability to create history becomes a thing of the past. It would no longer be a player controlled world because everything of consequence wont be under player control, it will be derived directly from the game mechanics.
