But... BUT! But!!! -> If you make gameplay elements in a 4x simple and easy to use and abstract, you are also reducing the contact area and emotional attachment that a player has with/to your game.
I totally disagree with that part actually. While there is a crowd of people which keep claiming the contrary, 4X are not a special kind of game which requires a heavy rule complexity for "contact area and emotional attachment". Or even from being good in the first place. I'd concede that 4X games will always have more rules than a FPS, but piling rules on them won't make them "better".
4X games are games. And like all games, what people like about it will be different. I mean, I hate counter strike yet there are millions liking it. And, the "ruleset" there is very simple. Go is the same, very simple ruleset. How many fans of the games ? While they're not 4X, it's the same with 4X games. I'd take most strategy / management board games as an example. I do and will find a lot of people with strong attachment to them despite (necessarily) simpler ruleset. 4X space computer games sadly have most of the production aimed for the last 2 decades at "master of orion 2 level of micro-management" fans, but FINALLY, we are getting out of it.
This is why total mass-market stream-lining of a 4X can lead to absolutely HORRIBLE generic and shallow but pretty, trite (Endless Space / Endless Legends). On the other end of the spectrum too much micro in too many systems, leads to Distant Worlds, or the "animated excel spreadsheet with macros" as I like to call it. 
Endless Space and Endless Legend are actually what I expect from a 4X - focus on managing an empire, with the right amount of tactical combat. not that the game don't have flaws - they do. But I long for other works of this quality. Firaxis with Civilization 5 or X-com are also moving in that direction. Finally, as far as I can tell, Arcen Games aims around the Civ5 design philosophy and level of complexity in its games.
I'm probably going to go against everyone's opinion, but while I like the system management, the best part of Endless Space is how they designed the combat system. I think they started on the base that "combat is pointless in a 4X". Then moved into making combat a continuation of your empire growth rather than a series of unbalancing mini-games. For Endless legend, they focused on making it a "war" game and changed the research and region management to accommodate for that. Also, in my opinion, their work on making the factions different is currently on par with what was done with Starcraft. So leagues ahead of most competition.
(I played stardrive2 recently. I remember the (heavy) flaws of moo2 when I play it now... Like moo2, the awful "1 can research only 1 of 3, the blatant balance problem inherent of population producing +2 to -2 of a resource on a base of 3, the sheer amount of micro-management actions to be done every turn... and stardrive 2 also adds flaws of its own compared to moo2, like bugs and the ground combat).
(About combat in a 4X, basically, it's nearly always pointless. I mean, either you've won because you've got a technological advantage, or you've won because you've out produced your opponent. Most 4X games "tactical combat" is garbage because a player will be able to fight and win fights with heavy tech / number disadvantage. Just because the game's AI can't handle playing 2 mini-games. Check Stardrive 2 for a particularly bad example, or the whole of the Civ series. And, about what I said with arcen's level of complexity... what are they doing in SBR again ?).
My opinion is that starting with moo2, the 4X space forum have been spammed with a significant quantity of people that equates "lots of micro" to "good deep engaging 4X game". I don't contradict that people that have the mental capacity to handle that amount of rules, resist the amount of boredom necessary to do all these actions every turns for games lasting for potentially days or weeks form a deep emotional link to something that's finally capable of requiring those "skills" unnecessary in most activities. And those people, by nature, tend to never stop. But that does not mean that all 4X games have to be judged only by their paradoxically "narrow" mindset. 4X games, like all games, can be simpler... yet engaging and deep (keyword is "can", most games do fail, whatever their level of complexity is, to be engaging and deep).
I'm truly happy that games that do not cater to that mindset start going out.
