I don't think so. Evil usually has the best deal, with neutral second best and good a poor last.

That may why more people choose to play as evil, because it is so much easier.

It's that way in real life as well, so the game is at least keeping with the real world in that respect.

I made every evil choice in the beginning, then paid 10K to align with good. Of course, this is after I already reaped the rewards of being evil when those bonuses are needed most. In fact, after about the 3rd game, I stopped reading the text and went straight for the evil choice. I didn't realize til now "Good and Evil" made those annoying choices go away. Realism, that is a whole new ball of wax. I think there should be some choices that give a bonus for choosing good. Why are the colonists afraid of the whale creatures? The good choice to live with them should give a morality bonus. Destroying them should give a production bonus. Obviously, to be more realistic the choice between good and evil should be a choice between bonuses. This GC2 design (good = penalty, evil = bonus) is ridiculous.

I consider the difference between reality and the way the game works just creative license.  There's a lot of stuff that just wouldn't work if the game tried to adhere to some kind of realistic parallel.  That said, the game favors evil in most respects.  I always take the evil choice in ethical decisions.  When it comes time to choose an alignment, the fee for Neutral is pretty minor really.  The fee to select "good" can be substantial, but I haven't played good alignment since Dread Lords. 

I think it would be better if the alignments were more balanced, as noted above, a choice between bonuses.  Neutral isn't terribly far from evil in that respect, but Good always gets the short straw.  I have not yet found a compelling reason to play it again.

That's a good point, I mean paying to turn good really isn't something that makes a lot of sense.  It should be based on your behavior in the game as you stated.  Maybe we'll see a revamp of the ethical alignment system in GC3 that makes more sense.

I don't pay a lot of attention to things that involve role playing or backstory.  I'm more into the strategic aspect of games.  In fact, I'm thinking about buying Mass Effect 2 which would be the first time I've had an interest in a game that advertises role playing as one of its features.  Just not something I've been big on in the past.  The point being, if GC3 is going to do anything that makes sense because of backstory, it would be wasted on me.  Better if things just make sense strategically.