It would be best if technologies were detailed based on the enviroment of the culture that develops it, even if it's just small flavour text. After all, no two writings, caste systems or even swords are the same; resources, contact with other cultures and the mentality of the culture itself should be present when developing that tech. It would be boring if say a culture develops masonry and there's no description of what resources they use or what shape do they give their buildings, or they develop basic logographic writing but doesn't explain how it works or what material do they use to write on.
Later cultures could later adapt those designs and change it to their enviroment, and then when they advance that technology they adopted it takes more on the style of the new culture while not entirely losing the original design (Roman architecture over the centuries being adapted by Franks, Spainiards or Russians, Chinese religious customs and writing script spreading into Korea or the Xiongnu, Aramaic script shifting into Sanskrit or Pahlavi, etc.)
I know this would be very data-intensive for the PC you'd run with and it'd be more centered around worldbuilding/Godgame part of SotE rather than the 4X part of SotE, however I think it would be a missed opportunity if it didn't happen seeing as how fleshed out civilizations could be if they were details like that + the expansive tech tree.