I understand perfectly what you say and probably GWX is at its best. I wouldn't change current behavior as 43 makes hell of the difference and now with LRT mod it's hardcore with 3 DD overhead. Can't count the number of DCs dropped... Maybe you can incorporate that mod as an optional as it requires slight adjustment to current gwx and for you guys being able to reproduce those files on a tissue while having beer...
Maybe I just had too much experience to play a new career from 1939 (which was still fun). Really can't recommend anything enlightning when you came out with new campaign style in 1.04. This should be it!
About physics - I think it wouldn't influence noobie gameplay that much, probably make it way harder in rough sea as ships would crawl, dive underwater (would love to see a DD being so busy fighting huge waves like on documentaries that he doesn't have time to drop a single DC) if we assume that the ingame model is well done and just needs messing with rocket style inertia values? Maybe someday I'll take a look at it...
Bout RuB - as I mentioned, can't remember, if it's inappropriate to compare those two, it's case closed for me