I just want Shards and Sovereigns to be more intertwined. My Sovereigns usually never get within 2 tiles of a shard. They're suppose to be the channelers of the Shards, capable of funneling immense magical energies not owners of a glorified crystal mine.
I really do like your shard idea. I mean right now I only really treat Shards the same way I treat mineral deposits or maybe fertile ground. I've actually been treating refugee camps more importantly then shards, going so far as to abandon an Air Shard in favor building a city near a refugee camp. Even if I do build decide to built a city next to a shard it really isn't anything to me after I build a shrine, just another building in one of my cities. The "Opening Up" the shard is a gr