Edge scrolling will be in. (Some of) The Devs usually use the dragging method so they didn't notice, but in the Dev Stream it was raised as a question and they tried it, so they should be fixing that within the next couple of updates.

The free research racial trait does give a lot of research points. Enough that you're half way through the first Age by the time you've finished spending them. It has to be powerful to be worthwhile - if it were just a single tech, then it wouldn't really be worth much.

What might be interesting is instead of a straight one-time bonus, if it gave (constant) research every turn. This would stop the huge initial jump, but give you a decisive edge over time. Obviously, as time goes on, the flat bonus would be worth proportionally less and less

And yes, it'd be nice if it showed how much free research you have, and also for the Ideology traits that give research.