I think this would probably be for the best. Money is really, really easy right now, and even with the nerfs in 1.1, I can set my faction to -2 Traders and -2 Income and pretty much not even feel it. I'll have so much money that I don't even remember to set up trade routes. Money is never tight. I get everything I need from basic Tourism and maybe 1-2 income planets.

The major problem with using Morale as the LEP is that you have to manage Morale on every world as a case-by-case basis. This makes it a nightmare of micromanagement, as the bigger you get, you not only have to manage our new worlds, you have to fix your old worlds as well. There is no solution that can nudge your whole empire in the right direction, and worse, the best method of improving Morale involves Constructor spam and using Orbital Resorts. With money as the LEP, however, there ARE simple solutions that make it much more lucrative to pursue peaceful relationships with others, which, incidentally, is the strong point of Pragmatism in this game, and lends mechanical credibility to that line of thinking.