I recently checked and I can sell my goods at a nearby village for 52 gold each when it has +2 prosperity there, the enarby city has +2 prosperity but only 36 gold when option to sell. The craft goods at the city is 40% compared to 100% for villages. You can beg and stay there for free, but you can do the same for villages too. Castles and villages allow you to recruit troops at a higher percentage than cities.
So my question is this - are cities being intentionally made to be completely redundant??? Shouldn't there be a doubled gold bonus for selling goods there because, well, there are actually markets for the goods there???