[Q]

And don't forget that the most flexible UI is your brain!

I was first too quite unhappy with the UI, but the more I play SE V the less problems I have.

As I said already IMO the real limitation is the hardware/computer resources SE V needs in a larger/advanced game. My system (Athlon 3400+, 512MB RAM, Nividia GeForce FX 5500) may not be the newest, but is far above the published system requirements. And in a game at stardate 2412.0 with about 70 systems and 18 empires a game turn processing lasts several minutes. Even changing the system display or some larger lists may take a few seconds. Compared to SE IV this is a huge difference on my computer.