Monks are really powerful even on ara. Just not in hunwars/meso vs meso games which account for 90%+ games perhaps. If each civ matchup was equally popular monks would be used a lot, especially with civs that have good upgrades on them, like redemption.
With aztecs u can monk push and beat virtually any civ on arabia.. except enemy azt/maya as mentioned already
I think so too.
My statements are based on plain logic. Long time ago I even said towers are not expensive for feudal wars and just recent few months I've seen the tower usage from expert players has gone up. Because people have realized the 150 resource can be easily worth it if you kill a few enemy archers and keep your villies save.