Yeah, you're quite right - it has been people coming from the perspective of old-school wargaming that have a problem with my hex arrangement. And while I've played a few old-style hex games, I'm obviously not from that background so my first thought was toward what was easy to draw for me and looked good in that style.
I have considered drawing a simpler hex terrain style set - possibly lower resolution, definitely simpler rendering - and maybe I'd see about the flat top/bottom for that. It does seem foolish to potentially cannibalize my own sales, but it might be an interesting project (and maybe that's what's most important, at some point).