In that position I would probably play 0-0 then place my queen and rooks eg Qe2 Rd1 Rc1 or something, before I would consider doing anything about the central tension. White has a development advantage so black doesn't want to make pawn exchanges - this will only highlight whites advantage. In my experience it is much better to maintain or increase the tension rather than voluntarily release it. Try to maximise all of your pieces first because then when the tension is released you will be better able to take advantage of the resulting open lines/diagonals etc. eg. in that position if black buckles first and breaks the central tension then great, your development lead and more active position is enhanced. If black doesn't touch the centre then you can load up your major pieces and the more the game progresses the easier it is to decide how best to open the game up.
Pawn Tension and when imbalances cross, what to do?
Usually, initiating a pawn exchange benefits the other player, because when they retake your pawn with theirs, their pawn replaces their old pawn, while you are giving up your pawn - essentially, you trade your forward pawn for the opponent's backward pawn. It is only advisable to do it when you know that opening lines will benefit you somehow.
This position is nearly symmetrical. The main difference is the black pawn on g6. This makes his kingside dark squares a bit weak, but this also makes his g7 bishop much stronger than his white counterpart. So the only reasonable way for white to try to play for win is to try to exchange the dark-squared bishops and then make use of the weakened black squares by plugging the knight and the queen there. For that, the best plan seems to either eventually take dxc5, or let black take cxd4 and retake with the knight or the bishop, depending on the circumstances.
Even then, the position seems pretty equal for me. White simply didn't play a very ambitious line and didn't create much in the way of threats. With black's strong play, the likely result is a draw. Trying my plan against Stockfishes' best moves, I get this:
Stockfish slightly prefers black, probably because of white's isolated pawn. I'd say I slightly prefer white, because that isolated pawn isn't going to be easy to attack, and white enjoys a slight space advantage and is stronger on the dark squares - but even so, the position looks drawish.
I actually did hold out the tension and elect not to trade, and castled instead, and I think I was the better for it. I'll demonstrate when the game is over. I can't look up on engine yet, because it's against another engine and I need to win clean so I can defeat this foe! But thanks for input. It went hours with no responses.
After
We arrive at this position. An engine is of little help here because while they are great for picking the right move, they won't tell you "Why."
Options are cxd5, obeying the general principle of trading a wing pawn for a center pawn, and thus more central control.
But that brings up Black's e pawn to d5, giving him a relative advantage in space compared to before. White's pawns control only 2 squares past the 4th rank now, compared to blacks pawns controlling 4 squares. Before the trade, it was even at 4-4, but white gains a half open C file then.
When "general principles" all come into conflict, it can be a task to choose the one that takes precedence. What is the proper method of relieving pawn tension in this scenario?