"we wanted the experience in itself to be fun and highly visual so that players could visit, admire, and learn from looking at the layout of other Mayor’s cities!"
We're not in the GTHQ to admire other people's cities, we're there to trade. Having to wait 10-30 seconds for the city to load, only to find it's already been sold, doesn't make your players feel that they're visiting and admiring other people's cities - it makes them pissed off.
Almost all the comments here are people - your players - telling you this so WHY DO YOU INSIST IN IGNORING THE FEEDBACK?
Idiots.