If you don't believe those are still mana by another name, I feel sorry for you.
In that case Mana was never a problem because currencies like Gold, Prestige, Piety, Militancy, Consciousness, etc. are all technically Mana. If they were not a problem before, theny the are not now.
When people talk about Mana, we talk about Monarch Point system introduced by EU4 which Imperator inherited. The problem here is not in currencies (or Mana as you call it), but by the design intention - you collect an extremely abstract set of currencies that are used to make magical actions. Simulating realistic, organic changes in society is discouraged. Long-term planning is discouraged. Everything has to happen on a click of a button. Everything must be under the player's control. THESE are the problems, not currencies per se.
Abstract currencies (aka Mana) will always exist as you can never simulate everything (nor does anyone really want EVERYTHING to be simulated in detail). The point is not to remove all this like some religious fanatic purging heretics, but to make sure that Abstract currencies are used when needed, rather than enforced to be used everywhere. There's almost no strategy game in existence that does not depend on "Mana". The problem here is, and always has been, a certain game's design philosophy.
With that all said, I wonder if you even played Imperator after the mentioned patches because your posts makes zero sense. You can't use Political Influence, gold for that or any other currency for POP control. You need to build cities, import trade goods, build buildings, create jobs, intentionally not build up territories, force governors to follow certain province policies, etc. NONE of this can in any way be categorized as use of abstract currencies aka mana.
_/
