Right,
I forgot that the point of this game wasn't to fully control 7 islands (or more), and build your clan big enough so the age of WW can come and then get all 7 WW to level 10. But an alliance can only get so big before there's nothing to do besides build cities and even then the alliance still may not enter the age of WWs because they eliminated all the competition and so there's no way to even grow. So since that limits the growth of a clan, and slows it drastically, I guess and even worse way to go would be to control 7+ islands, and grow, and allow the rest of the world to catch up, while keeping other big alliances in check, and thus getting the age of WW to come even sooner.
I guess I also forgot that conquesting players and alliances wasn't the point to control islands and farming is the way to go!
Good call!!