there are some weird leaders in Civ VII

Like, I can understand Harriet Tubman. She was not in any sense a "world leader" or even a politician, but it's really desirable to have a black leader for the US to represent some of the less horrendous aspects of this benighted country and if you want to choose someone with name recognition who's outside living memory^[1] you've got slim pickings. Tubman was at least involved in politics, and the espionage side of hwr story fits well with the game's mechanics. It's definitely uncomfortable seeing her operating treasure fleets and colonizing the new world, but that's just table stakes for Civ as a whole.

I have no idea what possessed them to choose Ada Lovelace, though. Not only was she not remotely a political figure except in that she was technically a member of the English aristocracy, she wasn't a figure at all in her own lifetime. Her contributions to computing weren't recognized for generations after her death, and even then she's mostly impressive for her foresight rather than any actual contributions that might have changed the flow of history. If you're just going to pick arbitrary famous people from history to be "leaders", what's even the point of calling them that anymore? Just say "mascots" or "avatars" and call it a day.

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1. Not that this has always been a rule! Gandhi was assassinated a mere 43 years before he became a leader in the original Civilization. By that metric someone like Malcolm X or Fred Hampton who was more explicitly involved in nation-building projects would be fair game. ↩︎