Except... That any number of other players would disagree with you on your choice of must haves, arguing that they are optional, except probably for the ascension path. So it is not that "we" basically have two choices, but that you do, and it is solely because you choose for perfectly valid reasons of your own to restrict your playing style to playing in a particular way that leaves you just two choices.
As an example of a person who'd disagree with you on your picks, and speaking singleplayer only on Grand Admiral:
- I consider Supremacy entirely optional unless I get intro trouble early, am boxed in with negligible room for peaceful expansion, or am playing an early-war build where I conquer using my own fleets rather than by spearheading alliance fleets; If I feel the need for Supremacy in the early game, it is very, very, powerful and nothing does the job anywhere near as well as it does, but if I don't need Supremacy in the early game I am usually better off picking a stronger economic tradition than ever picking Supremacy
- I love Expansion for wide direct control play, and will pick it nearly every time if that's my goal, but if playing more vassal focused with a smaller core empire it is easy to do without Expansion
- I consider Prosperity the weakest economic tradition, and it is easily skipped
So of your 5 must haves, one I haven't picked the last five years due to its weakness from an economic perspective compared to alternatives and two are heavily dependant on build and circumstances. The ascension path I'll always pick and Harmony is a great general purpose pick, so I'll almost always pick that.
On the other hand, here are two traditions I almost always pick:
- I consider Diplomacy the strongest tradition in the game, full stop, due to its ability to let me start snowballing my economy faster than any of the other economic traditions by diplomatically neutralizing potential enemies and allowing easy mutual defense, allowing me to reinvest a lot more in my economy earlier due to less need for an early fleet; It isn't a must-have for me, but it is very, very, close to being so. No other tradition comes even close to the economic benefits and ability to ensure that wars are fought when and where I want it rather than when some AI decides to attack me. Even if I play an early war build using my own fleets and hence pick Supremacy, Diplomacy is still very powerful as just two picks gives me 2 envoys, which means a lot faster first contact influence, which means I can claim more systems earlier
- Statecraft is another very strong general-purpose tradition due to how the council is a force multiplier on economy, research, and military, initially small but growing in importance as leaders level, so I'll usually invest at least 3 points in it fairly early for XP from agenda completion and +25% agenda progress (or even as first pick if playing high-unity)
These are unlikely to be considered amongst the strongest by the majority of players, though the higher difficulty they play on the more likely it is. Does that make either them or me wrong? No, it just means that I play the game differently from the majority of players.
For that matter, I am probably one of the few players who like picking up Domination in the mid-game as 6th or 7th tradition since I like to play very large empires, but occasionally I'll pick it up early. That's when I don't skip it entirely. It certainly isn't one of the most powerful traditions, but I like it and there are a few situations in which it shines. It is very definitely a "nice to have".
Domination is much maligned, and for good reason I might add, but it has a few things going for it.
- If playing high-tech without a zero-ES from POPs build Domination's -10% global ES from all POPs, which is additive with Harmony and Psionic Theory and multiplicative on local sources of POP ES reduction, is very valuable in the late game for cheaper planetary ascensions and increased research rate
- +0.5 influence/mth, +20% councilor XP, +50 edict fund is valuable in the early game (granted, by itself 0.5 influence/mth takes a long time to really amount to anything much, but first contact influence scales by influence income)
- +1 initial official level stacking with other sources of starting level helps recruit mid-level officials in the mid-game onwards, occasionally highlevel ones, and officials are the hardest to level. Since officials are multipliers on POP production and POP ES reduction, this helps a lot if playing wide direct control in ensuring that sectors are properly governed
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