I can see where they are coming from, but I'm not sure that's the best gameplay mechanics. Ofc not all games can have the same gameplay mechanics and variety between games is good, but I'm not too keen on this.
Ideally I really think it should have luck and strategy in play as games that use both do tend to be more fun and enjoyable than ones that use only strategy or only luck but this just flipped it from being 100% strategy (apart from people buying units while you are in the process of the ten minute countdown to attacking them - I think that happened to me - which is the one time you could get messed up before since you could always work out the outcome otherwise) to being close to 100% luck. The fact you can send one in and then get that information makes it slightly strategy, but if that person is on at the same time, they might notice they got attacked and recruit more anyway so that information might not serve you too well, plus people may burn lots of individual units just to find the right person to attack, so while there is some strategy at play here, I'd say it is mostly chance, which I'm not too sure is the best game mechanics either.
I really think having the profiles visible, but adding chance in the form of having a range for the attack and defence numbers with the amount dealt / defended being determined within that range (obviously a higher range for stronger units i.e. 1 - 5 attack for a low attack unit could translate to 11 - 14 for a stronger unit than that one etc) with maths or essentially automated dice rolls. This would stop close battles where people have very similar armies from being boring and always being a draw, but would give people enough information to use strategy and decide whether to gamble on the similar armies (based on what they can get out of it if they win and what they could potentially lose) or whether to just attack smaller people or whatever else.
Earlier the fights were too predictable which made it a bit dull and lead to just about everyone only raping the players with smaller armies and now it is a complete stab in the dark that could lead to many losses of units, which takes away the strategy part and makes battling seem more pointless (which is also made more problematic by the fact that money is directly connected to this game).
The battles are okay in both forms - this is their game, not mine - but I personally think they would be better if the way they worked encouraged strategy and also involved luck, and this approach does slightly, but there's not enough strategy involved with these current gameplay mechanics imo. I really think a range or something similar is what they need.
I agree with you almost on everything!!