[Radoye]

Aside from London, I'm only going to sparsely populate cities. Key structures like harbours, docks, main factories etc, my cities will be sparsely and generically populated. A mission builder can always add to a city if it's a target in their missions.

That's the way to go, IMHO, however some well known landmarks should be present - it would aid the navigation and also it would look bloody good. Noone really cares in not every house is modeled accurately but that famous church or this imposing old fortress or the twin factory chimneys or something... especially if we talk about so well known landmarks as the Eiffel Tower or something... these should really be in...