Its more of a step sideways than a step forward, as I say theres enough different about it that it can comfortably sit alongside Civ but Civ is (imo) undoubtedly still the no.1 in historical 4x games.
Humankind and Old World will at least give the Civ development team some competition and probably a whole host of ideas to steal…. er… incorporate…
From the reviews and limited playing of humankind, fans of Civ style 4x might get more joy from Old World than Humankind?