My initial reaction was to give this update a 4/10 or so. I am not amused that as a higher level player who's paid for the building of four or five towns I now have to either help pay for another one, or find some empire/fast growing small town that will let me shop. Plus, the "improvement" to the soldier outfit felt like the devs just wanted to spit in our face and laugh. +1 appearance? really?
The more I thought about it though, the more I'm beginning to realize that this is a pretty fair update. Yes, we can't buy the new items in stores, but I think people are ignoring the fact that these new items and set bonuses are pretty comparable to the difference between normal and fancy clothing. With more items each level you build can generate, you lower your chances of getting that fancy item which likely comes in handy for more jobs than a single item set probably does.
This also has the effect of encouraging larger towns to start forming empires/alliances and building new towns, better preparing the climate for fort wars in the 1.20 update (which 1.19 was described as a precursor update for, rather than a fantastically awesome standalone one).