That is all

Agreed

no

I agree, but it's also one of those annoying constraints (like humanitarians) that makes Alliance interesting to play.

Humanitarians, bot defensive allies, research allies mattering - there's already a lot of different stuff about alliance compared to the other servers. I don't think this difference adds value to the server. I am open to being wrong.

I would go a different direction. Alliance should have a market driven mechanic tied to your alliance. So either a third ally-market, some sort of alliance pact that gives you discounts to market or price changes, etc.

I'm typing way faster than my brain has had to process the idea, but I like the idea of Alliance requiring allies to be successful.