TLDR: IRL there was a soldier and/or priest that would take all the resources in your spare resource pile preventing you ever building anything beyond the buildings you started with.

Five year old article. No Manor Lords, which would win the author over on a few points.

The central point is that villages and towns grew only very slowly, and were planned, but if you get rid of the first constraint in order to be fun, you naturally end up with something like “organic” growth.

this may be slightly off topic but if you guys want a good series to watch, there is a collection of city skyline videos by donoteat01 which I really love that shows how citys are made over time. God I miss his vids.