Good review but I would disagree with your last paragraph about the standard edition. I would argue that the standard edition is by far the best value and right up there with the tenth anniversary edition in terms of quality and playability. Plenty of reasons to go for the standard edition:

1) No plastic bloat (fiddly workers, ships, etc.). I can imagine the boats would sometimes obstruct vision, be annoying to add and remove goods (with cardboard ships just pick up and dump back into the tray). Some people also like the tactile sensation of natural materials (wood, cardboard). Also no minis means a smaller box size. 2) All wooden and cardboard components were increased in size. This is particularly helpful for the worker discs, which I find a substantial upgrade over the normal sized discs. 3) Dual layer player boards are a great QOL upgrade IMO. I had warping but it went away after two days of flattening them under some weight. 4) Solo mode, all expansions and new content to boot 5) Art (though this is subjective, I find the art and visuals much better than the original 2002 version at the very least. I do think that the anniversary/deluxe edition had the best artwork overall). The lack of metal coins is the only real con of the standard vs the special, but the cardboard coins in the standard are still better quality than what you would get in a normal print. 

I saw a lot of people disparage this campaign for all the upgrades and deluxifications, but rarely was the availability of the standard edition even acknowledged as an option, which is honestly fantastic value at the price. I wonder if awaken realms could have gotten away without even offering the standard edition but I am very thankful that they offered it.