Hello scallen1 I am huge fan of this game and I had several attemps to improve the current dom 1914 for years but I did generally failed. Then I really realize what dom players (or TripleA players) want to see and what they don't want to see in the game. You can improve any game greatly but in term of the taste of people that's another story.
These are general opinions of most dom 1914 players (or big map players) (including me)
Historical accuracy: It is not as important as you think coz nobody really care. Also making these map historical would make the game significantly more unbaşanced.
Declaration of war: Another bad idea. Every nations definitely should always start in the first round. These triggers slow downs speed of game.
Increasing the importance of techs: Not good idea because some players can prefer playing it without techs and the current tech rolling system is already very dicey. Boosting these techs makes the game more aleatory.
Different units/costs for different nations: People usually don't like it. They like great variations of units but generally better to give every nations to the same units.
Too many country: Again, it just slow down games, they don't provide more strategic options.
I would liek to see to share more my opinions if you are interested in.
Thanks.