I think when people say game is too hard, mostly they mean some of situations are just unfair and you have no ways of countering them. Also, when people say game is too easy, mostly say some of skill exploits give you unfair advantage and let you cheese through game.
It doesn’t mean both sides contradict each other, but they point out issues in two different aspects of the game: enemy can be unfair, player can be unfair. Right now both are the reason why alpha-strike is so necessary and why it works. You have to use all the unfairness you can get to prevent other side unfairness.
I think alpha-strikes should be prevented along with reducing the need of an alpha-strike, but that’s basically: Nerf everything. If we prevent first turn alpha-strike, you may and probably will end up in much worse scenario with even more need to release the kraken. It will delay massacre by one turn, of course if you survive and still have means of such after potential mind-control and bombarding out of nowhere.