uhm yeah bc of that I suggested to make them easier affordableOther aguments like "guard towers are useful we use them instead" are true, but will not help you against Hoang push since you're already pushed away from forward stone/gold when you have them (siege work shop+monastery are essential, and you need university + research time).
Reflecting about the topic, I think that the Hoang rush is probably not meta. As in: when both play perfect, the Hoang rush player loses the game. It's pretty much gambling on a mistake of the opponent and then you can capitalise this mistake much faster than with other strats. (You make a mistake vs archers: You lose some vils. You make a mistake vs Hoang: you lose your tc.) That gives the strat quite an interesting position in the meta and makes it pretty much balanced, I think.