Long time lurker. Just dropping by to say I love the Solo Reports (and have many of the same frustrations with Civ V as everyone else does - I quite prefer reading the reports to playing the game!).
Regarding the starvation/settler 'bug'/'feature', I believe this has been well known for a long time. I noticed it myself when I first started playing, and it's reported from way back, e.g.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=466935
One telling comment:
"When the game first came out, extra food was converted into production while producing settlers. However, one of the patches nerfed that down to a max of 3 or so bonus production, then a future patch nerfed it again so that excess food doesn't add any production for settlers at all. However, a city cannot SHRINK while producing settlers, so I always ignore food completely while producing settlers. Just remember to switch it back after the settler is produced!"
Regarding the starvation/settler 'bug'/'feature', I believe this has been well known for a long time. I noticed it myself when I first started playing, and it's reported from way back, e.g.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=466935
One telling comment:
"When the game first came out, extra food was converted into production while producing settlers. However, one of the patches nerfed that down to a max of 3 or so bonus production, then a future patch nerfed it again so that excess food doesn't add any production for settlers at all. However, a city cannot SHRINK while producing settlers, so I always ignore food completely while producing settlers. Just remember to switch it back after the settler is produced!"