WELCOME ABOARD!
Excellent first post! And I agree, up to a point. I have no desire to play a cold war sim, but then I don't do modern air combat either; but I fully recognize that there are a lot of folks who do, and I agree that a modern, or early, cold war sub sim could be cool.
What most of us don't agree with is the idea that it should carry the Silent Hunter label. If UBI were to do such a sim, it should have its own series title, but possibly related. Silent Stalker, maybe?
Back when SH4 was announced, and we were told it would be a US Pacific game, the U-boat fanatics complained that it should stay in the Atlantic. I argued then that if they were developing an all-new game with an all-new engine, then they were right - it should start at the beginning. But, I said, if it was going to be the same engine, what would be the point? The same game over with a new name? Made no sense at all.
Now I say the same thing, but from the other side. If they're righting new code and changing a lot of things, they should indeed start with WW2 Atlantic U-boats again, because it's an all-new game and that period has the most fans. But if it's the same game again, then you're right - it should move on to a new era, or at least a new area.
But when the ultimate, be-all end-all of subsims is finally developed, I hope it would branch out to cover every era of submarine warfare, with appropriate mood, systems, crew appearance and voices etc. to satisfy everyone.
But, as was pointed out, it will never satisfy everyone. Even a time machine would get complaints.
"I like the game, but I hate the moldy food!"
"Charlie hasn't posted lately." "Oh, his boat was reported missing." "Oh, crap! Poor Charlie."