I'm not sure what the desire really boils down to.
1. For things that take a set amount of time to complete, those are still "timed."
2. For things that are just "do X for a set amount of time" (like mining moons), there was no bonus to doing it to completion or whatever. The system is exactly the same as it was before, except that it doesn't make you pre-select a timeframe and it doesn't auto-end after that timeframe. That's literally the only difference. It doesn't ask you a question that you don't really know the answer to at the start (something important might interrupt you), and if you want a really long dispatch it doesn't make you do it in segments anymore. I'm not sure how this is anything but a win, honestly. You just go as long as you want, then end.
What am I missing?
It's the confusion aspect.
I cannot tell how much something or other will be gained/lost if I do a dispatch for, say, 12 months. Often, I have a certain amount in mind, or I may simply want to do it for a bit yet have it be a useful amount as opposed to a paltry amount, and the only way to find out which is going to happen is trial and error. As I'm basically incapable of math of any sort, I end up saving before I do these, and reloading frequently, as I have to guess. Very, very confusing. Very irritating.
Wheras the set-time dispatches related to science and construction are all nice and easy to deal with.
I think I already said all of this up in the patch topic, but whatever.
It's not a thing that actually breaks anything, it's just really annoying.