Magic: The Gathering

You could just as easily choose a land they control.

The full phrasing would be "whenever a soldier deals damage to an opponent, choose a land that player controls. That player sacrifices the chosen land. If they do [...]" with the rest of the text being the same as the original.

Or, at that point, we might drop the sacrifice, and make it "Whenever a soldier deals damage to an opponent, you may destroy target land that player controls. If you do, they may create a token land (the rest of the token details here)"

So Non-token leaves them the choice, but no choosing the created Wastes.

My first phrasing gives you the choice, a more powerful ability, for sure, you could target non-basic lands, or weak colors in their current manabase, etc, all the usual perks.

My second phrasing gives you the same power, but lets effects like Indestructible or Warding apply as normal, letting the opponent protect lands. More reasonable, I feel.