I saw this game yesterday on his broadcast (unless he also faced him again today). The fact of the matter is that fast expanding is the only way to play 1v1 competitively and has been for some time now. It is what provides the income in order to then outtech and outproduce the opponent. It is built into the game design itself with each successive sector providing more income. Incursion used to be a way to punish early mass T1 expansion but it was also a way to just end the game since you could do it at around the 2 minute mark. It was far too OP and Substrate had nothing equivalent either.

There are a couple maps that play slightly differently - the symmetrical ice map where your bases are opposite each other across a mountain range - is interesting and becomes more strategic because there are fewer points to cap and you still have 2 lanes/directions to fight over. It often becomes sort of a stalemate where the game is then decided by better unit composition/scouting/teching/orbital choices. Knife Fight is just a crazy rush to fight over mid until one gets the upper hand.

I'd like to see more units and orbitals in the game that provide different strategic paths. What about an air unit that can decap points? Forces a fast expander to invest in AA while the other player has to expand slower due to investing in air factory. What about new ways to turtle up and expand your eco? Defensive structures that also buff income rates for sectors. Cost-wise these should be balanced with costs of a fast expanding T1 style. Each of these should have a pro/con to them. I'd like to see new viable playstyles rather than just nerfing the few existing one(s). Cheaper bombers would also be welcome. It would be another option for Substrate when dealing with these T2 medic deathballs of PHC. AA is pretty effective as is but I find bombers in 1v1 pretty cost ineffective.

Edit: another option would be to just simply reduce the number of sectors on some of the busier 1v1 maps.