A positive I see from this approach is that we won't have to spend half the game waiting for two ships to close the distance. Just get it over with and move to the good stuff; boarding actions or sailing onward. The developers have kept it simple enough to speed up the game, but detailed enough to provide some tactical decision making and make social interactions (crew recruitment, &c.) more worthwhile. It seems fine to me, but I'll have to wait to play it before knowing for certain.