Slower, really? My first thought when seeing it in the video was "Well, I hope either you don't travel back and forth a lot or you get a speed-up button for that animation. It sure looks like something that gets tedious, quickly". Estimating what the cut removed, it's a travel time of maybe 10 to 15 seconds. That's 15 seconds of doing nothing. And then another 15 seconds to get back to your ship. And who knows how long for ship travels. It all depends on how much is going on during these travels, but for a pure location transition with the occassional event in between, it already is on the slow end, I think. If there's a lot to explore and get diverted, it might be okay, at least until you have to backtrack.
I like the board game-y feeling of the sliding. Plus it reminds me a bit of the first Total War games.