I haven't noticed all of these things, such as i never ever use the exploration command, and i never looked closely at guardian wind to see if it was working, but the defensive issues he's mentioned about sight and zone of control and roads are major gamekillers for me. I don't want to have to place milita units on my borders to act as scouts for me. Hopefully in the next version where cities and outposts are changed then this issue will be addressed but at the moment its a giant gamekiller for me.
I've had games tuined because i just unlocked the tech that gives you roads after i built my second settlement and an assassin demon comes running along my road, destroys three resources and the next turn razes my settlement, and then turns around and marches on my capitol - no way i had enough tech to deal with that ealry game and my heroes would only serve as a source of healing for it - restart new game. uhg. lol.
shrill lords, umber droths and assassin demons are the big three ealry game problems for these wandering monster. Those plague stalker things can be annoying too but don't show up as often.