One of the deeper implications with the speed-up mechanics: Can I game the system by intentionally speeding up an AI response to sync/desync particular events?
This is probably an added-bonus - there are often times when you want to take, say, 10 minutes to do a task with your main fleet (say free up a Dyson sphere in deep strike territory.) However, a waves is in 5, an exo in 8, following by probably another wave at 15. Here you'd probably try to hype up the AI so that the second wave is synced with the exo, leaving you with a much bigger window later on.