I kinda like the redesign. Air combat seems more interesting at first but when you really think about it that would get stale fast. Since there is no terrain in the air it would be fighting on the same battlefield every time. That would get boring QUICK! I don't really feel that restricted in the beta (well aside from lack of single player which is what I'm really interested in) although I do heavily agree with you that units need autocast. Having to manually trigger tons of abilities during a fast paced game where you are stretched thin along multiple fronts is a serious no-no.
