Monuments: Worth it or not?

[Gilmer]

Does anyone see anything wrong with "avoiding Glorious" as much as possible? I thought it was something to strive to attain.

[MoLAoS]

Does anyone see anything wrong with "avoiding Glorious" as much as possible? I thought it was something to strive to attain.

So unlike typical games your goal isn't to snowball out of control. Glorious is useful for specific purposes. The decadence penalty is absolutely massive. But you can build a ton of legacy that way. The effect of the government age system is such that unless you have special mechanics to avoid aging you want to move up and down the government level tree to keep the penalty down as well as take relevant decisions. Continuing to expand for 500 years is something the designers are explicitly trying to prevent. Glorious lets you churn out legacy like nothing but it has costs as well. Its a tool for a specific purpose, really. Especially early on once you gain glory you want to max it and then switch to tier 3 quick to avoid the age penalties.

[LDiCesare]

Glorious also has important loyalty bonuses. As in around 15%, depending on your culture.
So that may very well offset part of the penalties for decadence. But you definitely don't want to remain in the same government for too long unless you want huge legacy boosts at the cost of decadence.