Who is living in that area west of the Swamp Folk and south of the HK?
Nobody of any importance, apparently. There probably is someone there, but they've managed not to do anything that has come to our attention yet.
Possibly scrubland or desert land, with proto-beduin tribes?
Big reply later. I don't understand what you mean by actions and stats separately. So far as I understand I already count them separate. can you tell me what a cost would look like with them separate in your mind?
Personally, if I were to get into a scheme to evaluate our options, I'd start from the opposite end, and attempt to estimate the rough value of each action, as opposed to trying to estimate the rough cost of each stat. The only vaguely possible way I can see this, is to try to convert every stat into some sort of fungible value. Unfortunately, the situation is not set up to make that particularly easy.
Possibly, one way to attempt to make things somewhat more accurate is to have more than one method of converting stats to said value. One for when all relevant stats are at or near overflow, for instance, another for overall low stats, others for various critical situations (low stability, dangerous military/centralization/econ levels, etc). Not a particularly simple solution, though.
As for accommodating innovation chances and other non-numerical bonuses, the least bad idea I've had is to treat them like imaginary numbers. Thus, an action that generates X of universal stat value and a modest chance of innovation would be rates as x+i. The main version with stat generation of y and with better innovation chances would then be y+2i.
Actions with 'other effects' can then be treated similarly. Probably rated in ?'s, since they are of unknown quality.
Still less than ideal, but it does attempt to present the presence of other important factors.
Yeah, we're kinda SOL until we get internal combustion engines.
Steam tractors are a thing, in fact they can get pretty decent.
Nah, there are quite a few things out there to help with agricultural production. Pre mechanization, there are plow improvements, seed drills, better horse collars, and other such innovations to be had.
Early mechanization also pre-dates steam power. There are quite a few things you can do with gears and other mechanical power transferal techniques that utilize human or animal power. The cotton gin, mechanical threshing machines, and several others were massively transformative in the 1900's. Not that we're particularly close to those particular ones, of course, but there are quite a few possibilities that do not require steam.
As for votes, I'm pretty ok with the current front-runner:
[X] [Mega] Upgrade Best of the Best to Life of Arete
[X] [Main] International Games
[X] [Secondary] New Trails
[X] [Secondary] Change Policy - Megaproject Support
[X] [Guild] Plant Poppies
Pushing wealth up to 10 for the free stability, so we can take a value improvement instead of stability boosts, is a good idea.
Kind of want to fit mills in there, but I'd rather stick with the make money plan for now.
I'd also like to push harder on Subordinate Support passive policy, but its not worth changing things now. I'll be willing to argue strongly if we unlock another one, however.