The number of plots you own has a HUGE effect to how well you can do.
Agree with this completely! However, I draw a different conclusion than the one you arrived at.
Land is already very important to winning, as each plot of land can produce goods for you throughout the game, contributing mightily to your final score. Also, each plot of land you have is one plot of land less that your opponents can have, so owning more land is also a good defensive boost even if you're not currently producing anything on it.
A plot of land also gives a 500 boost to your total score just for owning it. You want to increase that value. But increasing it just makes land, which is already ridiculously valuable, even MORE valuable! As it stands right now, very often the person who wins the game is the one who owns the most land at the end. If you made land worth 1000 or 2000 or whatever, it just slants things even more in that direction. Raise the value of land too high, and it would be practically impossible to win the game by any other method other than winding up with the most land. The game would be less interesting if the amount of land factored even more highly into who wins than it already does.
