As you noted, Helmets and such can now be hidden. If I'm understanding how it works correctly, you actually have three modes - always on, always hidden, and hidden for cutscenes/dialogue, and you can set these individually by character. It seems to be working correctly, as far as I know.
Forced turn-based mode shares some of its clarity issues with shared initiative; sometimes, clicking the end button skips over a character who hasn't done anything yet, and sometimes it doesn't. From my own testing, what I believe it's doing is that if you have selected a character *at all*, even if you haven't acted with that character, then the game will assume that you're done with them when you click the end turn button on a character that shares their initiative. This is pretty bad; we really should have to end turn explicitly with each character, even if it means an extra click.
For the rest, these are all valid concerns and critiques, and I second raising awareness of them.
