I found that recently on reddit - A post describing well all the cut content. It is a "must see" as this game from 2019 was nearly done before it went to be completely build different. Here is the link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Settlers/comments/s9hu4z/list_of_things_that_seem_to_have_been_cut_from/
So... Using https://web.archive.org/: (https://web.archive.org/) and the links in the posts listed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Settlers/comments/s9dmrx/what_happened_to_all_the_news_posts_that/
I looked at all the things in those blogs and comparing with the beta, here is my list of things that were removed from the game, in no particular order:
Many resources, from the minting blog we can see there were 3 types of coins (copper, silver and gold) and it's also said that those would be resources around the map (in mines). Lots of food types, and many processed goods. Also, 2 types of wood, hardwood and softwood, and 2 types of stone: stone and limestone...
2) Buildings: harbour was gonna be different, there was going to be a town hall, a lot of classic military buildings like a fortress for your frontier, some resource buildings... all cut out.
3) Building levels: many buildings were able to level up, there were 3 levels, like the woodcutter who will level up and get more workers (like in S6) also, others would get different resources (mint would first produce copper coins and then silver and gold).
4) Population growth: settlers would be recruited via expeditions started in the harbour, and coins could be used to bribe them.
5) Cooking recipes: residence levels would unlock recipes (apart from the extra space) so Settlers would create food with different ingredients. One mentioned is "meat with corn" which suggests corn was a resource. This also ties to the next point...
6) Stamina: mentioned in the population one blog post too, settlers would get tired and would need to rest and recover stamina, for that, food is also required. More complex food will give more energy to them.
7) Market stalls: how would food be distributed? Market stalls. I think this is kind of the shop stalls in Settlers 6 but in a separate location from the production facility. Some resources are mentioned: meat from farms vs meat from the hunt, eggs, 3 types of forage, corn, and vegetables.
😎 The engineer tasks were divided into more specialists: frontier would be expanded by buildings, like classic games, and geologists were a thing. Builders would be trained and depending on their tier would be able to build more advanced stuff.
9) Not all settlers were the same, while carriers may be standard, workers needed to be trained (it's not mentioned if as a general thing or for specific jobs).
10) All the military stuff, I'll keep it short: There were more units that could be upgraded. It is mentioned that you would need different training grounds for units that use hammers and spears or units that use swords and axes. Walls were a thing and some units may be able to siege them (with stairs and maybe siege weapons). There was armour production, a tannery is described in a post, and it could be lightweight and surely heavy armour was a type of resource too. Also, many more types of weapons were available. Heroes existed but unlike S5, they seem not to be unique and could die. You would recruit them via tournaments.
You can find some videos of the 2019 version still on youtube up to this day:
As the forum has been wiped clean - here are my thought:
Ubisoft can keep both versions of the game the 2019 for an endless settler mode in the singleplayer section (should not be difficult to restore this version as the game was completed thus most of the assessts, graphics, animations and mechanics are already done) and the never version as competitive multiplayer RTS.
Of course some changes need to be made- my suggestions: Units should have unique recruitement goods (e.g. Horse-Rider needs a weapon, food, coins and a horse => would solve the issue of having not enought production chains) - also the production chains should not be streamlined and worked out better. Unique units for each faction (e.g. Elari crossbow unit should need iron to produce crossbow but Maru bow units only needs woods, etc.)
Settlers 7 Gold Edition