From my last render I went and did a quick one with the population tinting through the shader and not the pop tint, turned out ok and was quite easy so I see some nice possibilities especially with the color maps coming out fo gaea/wc.
(https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/049/361/123/large/vincent-arrouays-render-1.jpg?1652305905)
rip my poor laptop as well haha.