Slick, the 'intent' of Se4 Deluxe is to bring SE to retail. To introduce it to a market that has very little awareness of the Space Empires franchise. Starfury is also going to be released to retail and hopefully this will help to put Malfador more in the public eye.
It's all about making the public aware that SE exists in preperation of the release of se5. The only information I can point you to is the chat logs at se.net and any press releases at strategyfirst.com.
I expect that at some point aaron will make a post at malfador.com regarding the 'differences' and 'upgrade' of se4, se4:Gold and se4
eluxe.
Sorry I can't say more, but it's not my place to discuss items covered in my NDA.
Cheers!