I doubt that it helps the situation any, but I have to observe that the pattern of reaction is remarkably similar to that for the introduction of the coercion system as a solution to the planetary production wheel.
So the pattern of the change.
We begin with an easily exploitable system that requires balancing - in both cases, something is excessive, so sensor ranges stack too high and planetary output is 3 or 4 times higher than the pricing model.
Then, rather than making a small and obvious change that corrects the balance (diminishing returns on sensors or decreasing output on buildings), SD dispose of the existing system and introduce a new, over-engineered solution to achieve the same thing, but which is ultimately imbalanced in new, exciting ways, and also much harder to keep track of.
In both cases, we had a system where the fundamentals were fine but the balance sucked, and SD's solution has been to change the fundamentals and ignore the balance. It's always good to see tangible evidence of SD reacting to player feedback, and this is definitely such a case, but I do sometimes wonder why the devs refuse to take the path of least resistance. The engine change was this done right - a small addition to the engine output calculation that limited the overpowered returns. This is it done wrong - ripping out the old calculation and sticking in a new, much less intuitive calculation.
Stacked sensors were ridiculously OP. I've no sympathy for requests for a return for mega-range sensor ships that could reveal a whole Insane map in one turn, and I agree with Gauntlet that a Starbase-based long-range sensor network with ships having theater-or-less sensor capability is a preferable option to sensor ships... but a simple 10% diminishing return on ship sensors was easy to add into the old system, just as reducing output was easily doable without coercion and Wheelgate.
These big ground-up redesigns of mechanics where fine-tuning is required are frankly just bizarre; they tend to piss of sections of the playerbase, break other connected systems (as this appears to do to sensor bonuses, at least according to another thread) and they either don't deal with the original problem or introduce new issues that leave it just as imbalanced.