I've only been playing this the last couple of nights, and I certainly get nothing more than a slower paced RTS feel to it. It doesn't seem like I'm managing an empire at all, just finding planets and building labs around them, then building ships to deal with military threats. I've not fully explored the full tech trees, and haven't played on any real large maps, so my opinion or perspective may be a bit skewed...
So I voted for more 4X functionality. I've got other RTS games I can play for thet RTS quick fix.
I also find it odd that there's so much that's been deliberately left out of the game during the betas, to be added before the release... Don't those things that are being added need to be beta tested? The single player campaign, the new AI (which we were told the current AI is nothing more than a placeholder), the 4X stuff that we've yet to see... Don't these all need to be beta tested as well?