But vv3 with the glorified golden child is not worth the money I paid for it....
which does seem as if you're saying 'the glorified golden child' is in VV3.
I think the OP was describing the Tribal Chief as the "glorified golden child", so saying you get a TC in VV3 is correct.
Caveat emptor, as always - it's easy to be so overexcited for something new that you end up disappointed, no matter what you end up with. I like that the game encourages you to play through at least twice and then continue to play to get the 'awards'.
I think I'll probably play VV3 longer than I played VV2 - ringing the gong got tiresome after a couple of days, and I don't enjoy making more elders (stopped worrying about it once I got all the different totem designs). But I'll probably take my two (one of each faction) VV3 villages and work for some of the awards - and see what different potions I can make with each (I like making my own recipe books!)
To each his own. I bet we'd all disagree on what the "best" movies or "best" books are, too.