Hi DustinSouls I can't speak for the devs - I'm just expressing my own views.

I'm guessing they took a design decision early on to use squares instead of hexes; GalCiv 2 used squares for one thing and I personally think squares work fine - they allow you to go 8 directions whereas hexes only let you go 6 ways - a plus side for hexes is that they generate more asthetically pleasing maps - anyway, regardless of their relative merits it's too late in the day to change now - all the artists have been busting their asses making art assets for pretty square tiles.

With regard to your second point, I think it would be cool if units could switch between melee and ranged - but only certain weapons - I don't want the FPS Rambo scenario where a unit can carry 8 different weapons - even if a unit could carry the weight, weapons are bulky and would restrict movement. That said, I do think daggers, shortswords and other light weapons should be useable as backup weapons for ranged units - they could have a melee and ranged mode in this case

Anyway just  my 2 cents