If in humankind wont be real world map and real world religions its not civilization game its just some random strategic game which will definitely disappoint fans of civilization game most of us was hoping that this game will stop monopoly of the CIVILIZATION Games from  Firaxis Games studio, as i bought game when it was announced first time i was hoping to try the game which will give me more fun and joy(of course by saying joy and fun means to play the game with real world map and true start location). I still hoping that developers will think about it and add to the game real world religions, true start location, more cultures and real world map, it should not be done at the beginning(on release date) it can be added as DLC to the game later.

At the end I don't think those ideas are really bad which cant be done, as I am also software developer I know that it can be added to the game if the developers want it, and it definitely attracts more players to play the game and it brings profit to the company that's why its not bad idea to think and work on it,

They mentioned an ‘Earth’ map will be coming later, but it would be difficult to do true start locations given the nature of the game. I’m sure someone can mod them in though. 

Just for a heads-up, it is a bit hidden, but there are more religions in the game, whenever you unlock a tenet you can change visual representation of your religion to Christianity, Islam, Shintoism and bunch of others, that will influence how the Holy Sites you'll build from now on will look.

Also, each real-world religion gets a small, unique event tied to it. I have only seen one of them, but they appear to be pretty interesting.

In the stream where they showcased map making, they showed you can assign specific start locations to each player, and even change them depending on how many players there are. So True Start looks feasible.

Personally, I can understand that people like historical settings, but for me, as long as they don't have fantasy elements, it's already good enough. (And this is where both Civ and Total War have already gone off the rails)

I dont think TSL Earth is required to make a good historical game, but dont worry there will be plenty of earth map from mods very soon

Only playing on Earth map in a 4X isnt really a 4X but a 3X as you lose the exploration part of the generated world.

About TSL, its not really possible from a game desing point of view, as you start as a Nomadic tribe, and then once in game chose your culture. So except if you want to lock culture to territories you control, its no feasible. Locking cultue per territory would be very unbalanced though, and would make some region probably unplayable for lack of culture in this era

Adding more culture, sure, im assuming that the plan but they already start with 60 which isnt bad

As said above, there are real religions, but its not very obvious, you can rename them, a few religion get their icon and a specific event