Come on…
ACCM was not way ahead, his army advantage was basically a couple of knights and a couple of monks and Tatoh had more villagers for most of the game.
It was a small advantage at best.
Tatoh was also ahead to imp which gave him the tech advantage and a treb before ACCM had any upgrades, he never got elite and his production was constantly hindered becaise he decided to build his next three castles (which were his production buildings) basically on range of Tatoh’s trebs.
Obviously Poles are strong, but they are not OP and they have lost convincingly as well.