The save I provided is not the one I'm playing. That save has multiple aircraft that can hover over a target for hours. It's also a little broken because I already had Gals are Superior before upgrading versions and it allowed me to research Peasant Revolution anyway.
Yes, I am aware that JS has higher scores, and that is explicitly why I said do it on DJ. Yes, I'm def playing on DJ (on both of those saves). I haven't touched the diff since I started either of them.
Also, you need to "just accept" that you did those things according to a particular set of choices. Don't say "you should have x by x." Say, "I did certain things that enabled it, e.g. Golden Codex (turn on your sense of irony for this one if it isn't already going off like an alarm). I shouldn't have to pick a specific Codex ("Golden path" anyone?). That's a whole million bucks dude. You have spent all this time basically describing a golden path while claiming it isn't one. There is only a narrow set of decisions that can be made to produce the results you claim. It's pretty damn specific. That's a golden path. Not something that everyone "should have" done by March or whatever.
And until I'm able to launch one of my ICBMs down an enemy's base-hole I'm not enthusiastic about suddenly losing craft, storage space, etc. just for the lulz. I enjoyed the game 2-3 years ago before the missiles were ever introduced, and that's how I'm going to enjoy it now. There are a couple of changes between versions that I've considered changing, like having 600 capitatory tax (120 space) dumped on you, or giant boulders (100ish), forcing out your inventory before you even get a chance to pay it off. If I want to change them I will. They won't affect my battlescape game at all.