Hi hjl,
I see that you started off with SS2006 and then went on to play SS2008, you will probably remember that when SS08 came out it had a few issues, (as most software does), but Vstep kept on supporting the product until they had produced a very good ship simulator.
I think that you should look on the positive side. Vstep will continue to support SSE and release updates for it, (BTW have you installed the new update, version 1.2.2 available at shipsim.com or automatically updated if you have the Steam version?).
The potential is huge for this simulator. They have listened to what players want and when the mission editor is released I think you will see some really challenging missions appear. Would you want to miss out on that?
SSE is power hungry and so, if you were thinking of upgrading your computer, then you should keep that in mind.
As I said above, SS08 was updated often, (it eventually had version 1.4.2), and ended up as a good simulator. SSE will be the same or better. Vstep are constantly looking at this forum and trying to resolve problems posted by users.
As Captain Spencer said, the game is still buggy, but I think that it will end up a lot better than SS08.
Edit; the version number.
Regards, Dave