Hey Sam, I was about to post some similar stuff but I think I can help with a few of these first:
1 - He did. The new version allows you to target and ping root as a dish location. However (a trick from previous versions), you can look at the map in the main room, and find the station which lies on an intersect line between the one you'll be at, and the base. E.g., if you're at Lea/Lima, then the base is between you and Fabia/Foxtrot. So if you're at L, you can just target F, and you'll run into A (root, base) on the way to F. It's an easy way to find your way back.
2 - You can :) In fact, you already could.. it's just not "obvious" how. You know you can't "use" it, but what happens when something dense and heavy moves at sufficient speed? ;-)
3 - Good point, hadn't thought of that. Agreed.
4 - Not a bad idea. Although there IS a fuel-saving feature, which ironically also translates to "warp speed into a tree" feature. If you haven't gone 200kph downhill yet, you'll want to figure out how, especially since when you do, it uses ZERO fuel. and it's not even a bug, just a normal feature of things with geared transmissions.
5 - Fixed in v0.4.0
6 - AGREED. It's not the only thing borking up reports, but it seems to be the major one.
7-9 - No argument. All fun ideas