I was playing a little of Distant worlds, and one thing I didn't like was that I couldn't decide on what techs to research. One of the biggest reasons I play 4x games is tech research. I thought the private sector was a nice theory until I seen it. If Galactic civilizations does have the private sector then I hope it doesn't have private research, or the private and the public sectors share research.
Another question is does a living breathing galaxy means automation. Cause if it does then my question is what is the point in having a 4x game if we don't play it.
The rest of the private sector looks fine, but automating a game is not an improvement. The beauty of Galactic civilizations is playing it.
I like some of the ideas of upgrading some of the tech research as long as I can pick at least some of the techs to research.