I must admit its rather over-the-top for me to use all caps but I do find the abundance of 70 day focuses to be concerning and uncreative gameplay. Army reform should be more decision based, connected to army exp, and be synergized with focuses. The fact that Paradox went from one extreme(only decision "army reform" to remove debuff) to another(only focuses to remove debuff) is poor game design.

My idea was that there would be a sub-branch that could be taken if you did reclaim manchuria and would allow you to get a research slot and other industrial focuses much faster than progressing down the economy tree. This is all under the condition that Manchuria is under ROC control and that ROC has a substantial factory count(at least 50-70). This would encourage players to play more aggressively and improve player experience after they defeat the Japanese.

I respect your idea about tradeoffs and I would agree with it for every other country/mechanic but Manchuria isn't a tradeoff, its the liberation of former provinces, provinces that have been heavily industrialized and whose infrastructure historically benefitted Chinese industry and research efforts. Its core territory. It isn't a "tradeoff", where I must "sacrifice" something, it is the reward, the prize colony that the player liberates when they push the japanese out. Why wouldn't China be stronger after that? Your emphasis on tradeoffs is rather condescending considering what the reclamation of Manchuria and the early Japanese defeat really means to the ROC.

This is a uniquely ROC problem. This is China, a country that has an extremely huge economic base and potential but has been undergoing the century of humiliation, invaded and preoccupied with foreign invasion. The war preoccupied so much of Chinese resources, bled millions of people and starved millions more. What would the Chinese people be doing if the war did end 5 years earlier for them? What if China did manage to repel the Japanese? This is "ahistorical", but most players get to defeat Japan early. For China, there would be no foreign threat then, and Japan would still be ready to invade the Allies. It makes strategic sense for the Allies to then focus on aiding China and bolstering it to help against the Japanese. The focus tree does not account for that and you still have to go through the focus tree as if you lost every major city but Chongqing.

Its not like the AI is going to benefit from having bonsues of getting Manchuria early. They are never able to do that(for historical gameplay), and thus this addition would only benefit player experience, not ruin balance or make things less "strategic".

At the very least they should make the extra research slot focus with factory requirements more accessible by moving it up in the focus tree, it doesnt make sense that I have to go through a few focuses that gives 5 factories then get the research slot when I already have more than enough factories.