I love the idea of dropping campaigns altogether and having an added value quickie version for multiplayer! As far as micromanaging, a game that reduces it greatly is AOW3 with the vassal mechanic. That would be fantastic in GalCiv.
GalCiv 2 was not only my first GalCiv experience, but it was my first civ style 4x experience ever and turned me into a 4x mega fan! It took me forever to get into because it was so dense, but something about it just made me want to push through that learning curve and master the gameplay. It had such an impact on me that GalCiv 3 never quite hooked me in the same way, which I think is unfair, but it's like competing with a heavily biased memory rather than an objective comparison. GalCiv3 is
OMG! This sounds beyond amazing! This is exactly the update I've been waiting for!