Yes, scaling of difficulty/needed resources is what Elvenar uses, and is what the people who want things to be easier are complaining about.
The scaling does seem to be too much or one or not enough of the other, as there is not much difference for fighters. In fact, early chapter fighters cannot keep up with the troop production of late chapter cities. It is more in the catering area that the new imbalance seems to be now, especially cities that are chapter 8 or earlier, because they will never need orcs or mana or anything other than the 6 standard goods and coins and supplies to cater. An early chapter production-focused city should be able to easily match a late chapter city who has to use space for sentient goods and mana and seed and orc production, instead of just producing a ton of standard goods.