Villagers!

So I know, villagers need to be constantly produced and no idle villagers.

However, does that apply in post Imperial age if the game ever gets that far? Last night I was in a 2v3 (I was one of the 2) and the game went deep Imperial, I didn’t feel the need to produce villagers, just manage the ones I have. Is that how post Imperial should work? You can stop vill production?