I thought one of the main aims is for people to build the biggest city so it is called as the Capital of that planet and brings in bonuses (and more visitors), with cities each having some sort of ranking based on the amount/value of materials used. Each city will get a ranking then - if that’s not competitive building with guilds vying against each other in a rankings board then I don’t know what is?
That’s why I don’t think inactive people should be counting towards the rankings, otherwise new guilds will never get the chance to compete for the capital.