The rush to upgrade and get offworlds

I gave this feedback to DeftMunky the other day but thought I would get more community feedback based on indczn's post. I've heard a couple of people lament that the only way you can win at the moment is to rush through upgrades and be the first to put down offworlds. This was definitely an issue with beta 5. Still sort of an issue in beta 6 and especially in quickmatch where I've won games just because i beat someone to setting up an offworld market by 20 seconds and then the game snowballs from there.

I feel like rushing through HQ upgrades just to get an offworld market takes something away from the game. I'd like to see a little more strategy so that people don't automatically go through a set build routine just to get that offworld up and get to HQ 5. Back in beta 4 I used to surprise some people by going for a strategic buyout early to counter the automated nature of people's opening moves. I kinda miss that. At least then it took some people off autopilot where they had to decide whether to upgrade or not and react to what's going on around them.

It would be nice to see engineering labs and maybe pleasure domes strengthened again to make it more balanced and have a way to win without having to go offworld. In a perfect world you'd be able to use different combinations of the special buildings to win and not necessarily HAVE to build an offworld.

I feel like hacker arrays and offworlds are more powerful as of beta 5. With Beta 6 the patent lab was strengthened again. Engineering labs and pleasure domes are still lagging.

Thoughts?