Im absolutely amazed how people care that much about other peoples playing style.
Does it really makes a difference when you press 2 or 3 times on the bar to raise the speed? I don't think so. I see no point in removing the speed 1 option completly. As far as I can remember there wasn't even a single complain about it in the forums.
So, I'm still waiting for a statement from the Devs.
Since EU2, there are 2 kind of players of P'Dox games :
Those such as me, who care for the buidling, managing, expension, economic ... parts (let say all that is not remotely related to real time warlike (such as Age of Empire and every sions of it)
and people who consider all shall be like Age of Empire (but better), playing with a frenzy of the mouse (or even asking to have P'Dox games on a consol).
Untill HOI2 (second expension), P'dox was only a company acting on a niche market (mostly for european people, with a university background);and by so the first category of players were the norma (let say was 95% of the customers). Fine but maybe not really financialy acceptable for the shareholders (who play only one game, namely the ABBA game : Money, Money, Money, it's a rich man world)
Then came Suzana, and the marketing team (HOI2 second expension or around that date), with plans to enter the North American market. To please that market , games should be let ambitious on the thinking part (let say, make a WC with a pagan african in EU2 was not possible unless you had more than 140 IQ, mean over 99.99% of the US population, that being the statistic for year 2001, when I passed mine while applying for a job in said US of northern america). So game have to be more fun, more attactive to a younger segment of the population (and obviously, even if you have 141 IQ, you might not go to university if you are 12 y old, because that is life, even Jesse Owens had to learn to walk first before to become the fastest man on a track).
So yes, games now privilegie automatic reaction instead of deep thinking, but commercialy it was needed. A customer like me will buy 2 games a year, and I still play EU2 ... so not that good for P'Dox employees.
Is it bad? Well, 2 things on that : 1) what I do like is not a rule, it is only my personal taste, and it is for sure very good when we do have choices. and 2) What is fun for me would be certainly utterly boring for a youngling, who is looking for entertainment, while I do look more in way to keep my brain able to desemboiled any problem it may face and provide optimum solution.
So yes, some love to play it fast, some others love to play it slow; as long as we are provided way to choose, it is simply fine and dandy (still I would love slower games, or more settings to choose for let 7 levels of speed instead of 5!).