There is no doubt that natives are different. But I've started to question whether or not they were good for AOE3.
The fire pit is interesting but I dislike the magical feel of it in a historical game. Since it's here to stay I think the unit speed up dance could use a tweak to make it less effective. Maybe ES could even create two separate dances, one for military and one for villagers.
Why are a saloon and outlaws available in the Assassins and Agents and Spies, Oh My!. They just don't fit into the game IMO. They feel tacked on. Advanced Scouts. Oops. These guys are somewhere between current Agents and the 1.0 Agents. The things I do like -- 25 card decks (but not the level requirements to get them), bugged card fixes, new cards, etc. were all things that didn't require an expansion. Thus overall I'm not sure I really like most of the primary changes that TWC introduced. Whereas AoC really improved AoK (in fairness that's party because it had to address the bug and balance issues that AOE3 fixed with patches), I don't feel the same about TWC. While I still enjoy playing I honestly think I'd get more enjoyment out of fan patching AOE3 and playing without natives. Of course, there wouldn't be anyone to play with which makes that a little difficult.