I've played many of them myself and thought it was a fairly good history for the time frame it covered - couldn't really find anything comparable for 2002 - Present. But this covered some:
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/tag/4x-game/
It does show how far we have come in a lot of respects from 5.25 floppies to now. I understand the need for MA$$ appeal - good game design often I think has to be about capturing those KISS compromises without succeeding in simply making everyone unhappy.
Here is another good article about what made MOO2 the "gold standard" for many:
Master of Orion 2: The Formula behind the Success