Now the Imago Mundi is not much of a problem, as it only needs the Foundation Path meta progression at level 7, and you get foundation points regardless of what and how you are playing. The tunic however requires you to level Pachacuti to level 5, and depending on game parameters and success, that might well require playing him for two games. I did that, but I didn't like it. Civilization shouldn't be a game in which you grind for hours to get a bonus you want. Especially since a game of Civilization can take 10+ hours, while other rogue-lite games with meta progression have 10+ minutes games. Some mementos require you to level a leader up to level 9, and that requires some serious time investment.

Not only does the meta progression "force" you to play a leader you didn't necessarily want to play, it also messes with your player agency on the other game parameters. The quickest way to get points is to fulfill the most victory conditions (legacy paths) possible at the end of an age. Thus playing on easier difficulty and faster game speed setting gives you the most meta progression per hour. Of course the game still lets you challenge yourself with higher difficulty and choose a slower game progression speed, but it feels bad when the game basically punishes you for those choices by slower meta progression.

So not only isn't Civilization the best series for meta progression in general, the system is also badly designed in Civ 7. Many other games with meta progression scale that with difficulty, rewarding you for playing at higher difficulty rather than penalizing you for it. I really don't want to grind a leader with a couple of low difficulty, online speed, uninteresting games, just to get access to some cool memento combo.