What sort of fine tuning for the controls were you thinking of? Are the control sensitivity settings not making enough of a difference?
The arrow in the upper right is time of day (straight up is noon, straight down midnight). It was the compass surround I've always thought confusing. The two bars are different measures of altitude: orange is height above the ground where you are, blue is height above the deepest point of the deepest lake, which affects how fast "superspeed" (shift) flight is. I guess the icons aren't clear enough :( OK, HUD labels all round.
The in-game menu (del) shows you how much earned, but I think I need to change the colours (again). It also gives you a list of all the places you've got letters for, and who in each location to deliver to. Figuring out where everything and everyone is is supposed to be part of the "exploration" aspect of the game, but the names should tell you what sort of animal they are, so unless you get *really* unlucky (I got a castle full of rabbits the other day) you don't need to talk to *everyone*.
The water is UnityProDaytime, and the reflection calculations it does are a significant fraction of the render time, so I'm glad it's worth it!