It IS a lot better than existing production buildings. Fully upgraded it is one mean machine.
Last guild coin merchant had the buff "Chant of Focus" - with one of those on, and producing ewp, you would never use your exotic sawmills again.
A lot of players wants more space. The Epic Woodyard do the same job as at least 10 lvl 5 coking plants.....unbuffed.
Output is doubled for hwp. Epic Woodyard do the job twice the speed of a HW sawmill.
Since forresters is a bugged thing on our islands, it is a matter of experimenting. ;-)
All of the above, made me get Epic Woodyard number 2.
There are as many ways to play the game, as there are players - but eventually, everyone will see that Epic Woodyard is an awesome building.
Used the right way.