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Naval Buff anon here, the fears about steamships are completely overblown, especially if the the ones in this game are based on early models.
First, I am working under the assumption that the main purpose of nautical travel in this world is trade.
The main stay of most trading fleets in the 18th century would be an East Indiaman (Although there was no set size for these) or the Galleon. They would all be Full-rigged regardless. The average speed of these ships would be 7-10 knots depending on conditions.
The first steamboats used paddlewheels and because of their size and power, were relegated to lake, river and sometimes coastal travel. As steam technology was improved, and became more reliable, they were applied to larger, ocean-worthy ships. These ships could operate between 8-10 knots in normal conditions.
However, the early ocean-worthy steamships were hybrids, both a sailing ship and steamer, because they could not carry enough fuel and only used the steam engine during calm weather, and were not able to use the sails to produce enough speed. There is also another reason why early steamships made for poor trading ships. The engine and fuel required to run it would take up a majority of room in the ship's hold, and there would not be enough space remaining to carry commercial cargo . Whereas a sailing ship does not require an engine, nor fuel to run it, so it can maximize space in it's hold. There is also the issue of operational distance, because a steamship would need to either be able to make a trip and return to its home port, or find a friendly port that has coal to refuel.
So even though steamships are less dependent on wind patterns, they are not in any way game breaking to the world economy due to the fact they run at similar speeds and are resource hungry.
