It cracks me up to no end, reading posts from non-Beta testers, getting upset about the minimal z-axis usage, phase lanes instead of open space, and lack of grav-well FoW (e.g. you can't "see" (inside the grav-well) unexplored planets and/or who knows what a planet is doing if you haven't "scouted" it in a while!).
Having been in the Beta from the beginning, I can honestly say, you would NOT want those features on top of everything else. The micro-management involved would be astronomical...you'd have to get an IV drip with super doses of speed and caffeine, just to be able to keep up with the new game dynamics as that would just be too overwhelming. Like I read Blair stating, a lot of those elements are possible (or implemented differently than what you're used to rather) already.
I'm an old school Homeworld series fanboy (not a big fan of standard 4X games) and really like this new "style" of game, it adds the right mixture of play that I feel compliments a RTS very well in my opinion. So, if I can like it, I know you can too! Well...at the very least, don't knock it until you've tried it!
My name is Slimpinto and I approve this message!
