I'm not as down on the game you guys are, but I'm admittedly not super gung-ho on it right now either. I definitely understand where you're coming from.
It kills me to say this, but I'm struggling finding the motivation to play DW2 right now. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot about the game that I like. And I absolutely love the concept; I always have.
At the moment, though, I'm just not seeing that it's a huge improvement over Distant Worlds: Universe. I'm not seeing a qualitative difference between the two games, aside from the visuals and the UI...and even in those two areas, I'm not sure the improvements are *enough* of a difference to be worth it.
When I sit down and actually play DW2, I have fun with it...for a little while. Sooner or later, however, I find myself encountering issues -- the exploration ships, unintuitive colonization issues, fleets not moving/arriving together, the ship design problems mentioned by Boyerwulf (and so many others), etc. -- that cumulatively and up irritating me to the point that I have to just put down the game, and make me not want to come back to until a few months down the road. Hopefully at that point, some of these issues will have been addressed.
I do believe Distant Worlds 2 will get where it needs to be, eventually. Given Slitherine's and Codeforce's long-term commitment to the game (as they were to the previous game), I'm confident of that. As it stands right now, however, I just don't think it's there yet.