Finally caved in and bought it for 75% off in the latest sale on Steam. And it's a pretty fucking fantastic game. I've been an idiot to wait that long. I guess what put me off initially was that UI. It's wonderfully functional but the aesthetics is straight from Endless Space, slick, science-fictiony and all that. I prefer something more fairytaly in my fantasy game, then again the lore seems to be a mix of fantasy and SF from what I've gathered so far.
Bitching about UI may seem retarded but I bought Endless Space on launch and couldn't play it because the UI didn't scale and on my 22" monitor I couldn't see jackshit. Fucking developers making games on their 50" inch plasmas not realizing real people will play it on much smaller displays. When I booted up EL my eyes almost popped out when I saw the UI is just as microscopic but thankfully there's a "Big Screen UI" in the options. That gave me a laugh. Sounds like a concession to special needs players when in fact it's the only way you can reasonably play the game.
Nevermind all that shit, game seems great so far, final verdict coming soon.
EDIT: I didn't buy the Shadows DLC, I've never liked espionage systems, never played a 4X with a good one. Am I missing anything essential or can I safely ignore Shadows?