Factory manager

[Arakash]

Those few players that would happily spend 1-2 hours every turn micromanaging their factories to that degree would never use an automated system like the one I suggested because they could do it better. But, all the other mortal players like me would save a hell of a lot of money on freight using that factory manager I suggested.

Thats a fair point and im certainly with you.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
People will complain about including such systems you are 100% correct there. However, people will also complain if they are not
included!
Reading reviews on that Distant Woulds game and most of them (that I've seen anyway) list the automated systems as a positive and a few of them focus a bit on how well implemented they are.
At the end of the day it's a design choice Eric has to make. Most people (in my experience) will not stop playing a game because there is a feature in it they don't like as long as it's optional. They'll complain about it no end (good publicity I say!!) but but they'll play it. Compulsory features (either can't turn off or can't turn on. Either hard coded or simply perceived as compulsory) on the other hand WILL stop people playing if they get on their nerves enough.

Distant Worlds is one of my favorite games, and while its expensive to get it and all its expansions, its extremely unique and i love it to bits Incase you couldn't tell
Even from a game development perspective i really love how they designed it, and their attempts to improve it(especially the UI) over time, which is why i tend to use it as an example when talking about game features.

You made a good point about people perhaps not stopping playing a game, but just being more loud in their complaining. Your probably right there, one of the difficulties is separating the features that discourage people from buying and the features that just make them whine loudly on the forum. As you point out, that kind of difficult determination is left up to the game designer.