I Hate Research in GalCiv 4

I'm a die hard GalCiv 3 player, so coming to GalCiv 4 was going to be a treat for me. Another game where I could spend a hundreds of hours forging my own destiny. But after playing GalCiv 4 I for at least 50 hours, I have to say that I absolutely hate the change to how I can select research projects. I find it boring, tedious and most of all, kills my strategic thinking. 

Why oh why was this done? I've tried many, many times to get into the game, and each time I try, I end up quitting because I'm both bored and frustrated. I've gone back to playing GalCiv 3.

Does anyone else feel the same way?