I'll have to log in again tomorrow, as I am out of my daily allotted thumbs up.
Otherwise kudos to TheTrueObelus , Aquasarrious and M002mod for being spot on.
It seems as if Wargaming.net didn't understand just how much the fans liked MOO2 and how much we hated MOO3.
Incorporating star lanes from MOO3 destroyed hope for an awesome revival of MOO1 and MOO2 playstyle.
Combat should have taken their inspiration from MOO1 and MOO2 by combining what both did well.
No Star Lanes.
Free Movement to the stars limited by fuel cell range.
Use mostly MOO2 style of tactical combat, but add MOO1's stacking for ships of similar types up to some limit, say 50 ships max per stack.
This would reduce the total number of units that had to be moved on the tactical map which slowed down combat in MOO2 for huge battles.
Which I have to say, wasn't that bad to begin with. Rarely did I actually need 100+ battleships/titans/doom stars to win a planet.
Lots of choices for the user to decide what their style of combat would be for that game.
-- I remember tachyon beams from MOO1 which fired a beam in a small arc that carried over damage from one destroyed ship to another in the same stack.
-- I remember MOO1 Megabolt Cannons which were inherently more accurate, so if I hadn't didn't have the option of a better computer, I could use it that game and still hit with beams.
-- As already mentioned MOO2's Neutron Blasters or Death Rays to kill crew and capture ships.
-- MOO2's creation of Light Carriers to Heavy Carriers of Fighters which worked even for those with poor beam options.
-- Obviously missiles types of increasing damage, but MOO2's MIRV, fast, armored, ECCM missiles brought in a new element MOO1 didn't have.
-- Torpedoes could have been improved upon. I rarely saw cause to use torps. My foe would have to have very strong shields that I was having difficulty penetrating for me to resort to use them.
-- So many optional equipment for further customization it made each game interesting.
Though not the best picks, I would occasionally choose ones to hinder myself just to make the game more challenging, such as Feudal, Uncreative or cyber picks.
I remember in MOO2, the first time I saw a Meklar Battleship repair itself during combat faster than I was damaging their ship. That was intimidating. I saw MOO4 took that away too.
I don't know what's going on, but MOO4 or MOO as it's now called (no that won't get confusing ever, said no one) is turning out to be a dumbed down version of MOO3.
Less complicated, but with the same stupid star lanes.
Using MOO1 races, pretty graphics and great voice actors aren't enough to overcome star lanes, poor tactical battles and poor diplomacy options.
It's not like anyone had 2 decades to read varies forums, listen to the fans and build what we many of us hoped they would, or wait, they did have 2 decades. 
Other companies tried but couldn't, because of copyright laws or personal delusions of what made MOO1&2 great as they created their own now faded sub-par versions of this great game.
MOO1 Fan, MOO2 Fan, MOO3 needed too many changes = hopeless, MOO4 trending downward, getting older waiting for a MOO5 (a modern version of mostly MOO2).