I played it a bit after FOG died off.
it is a game, not a simulation. I was turned off by the unlikely abilty to turn to flank or about face and charge half distance into combat. This maneuver seems impossible for even well drilled napoleonic soldiers so I don't like it in ancients.
Yeah, that really does take a lot of getting used to.... My understanding is that it's part of the deliberate design choice by the author to make flank attacks pretty deadly in order to ensure games resolve in a shorter length of time than the 3+hour standard of many previous popular ancients rulesets. As you say, the balance between 'game' and 'simulation' is deliberately set a little further towards 'game' than many other ancients rulesets claim to aspire to.
The risk of flank attacks also greatly encourages players to take a lot more care to secure their flanks - and certainly our group have found that once we all became aware of the actual in-game risks of leaving flanks hanging open, the number of these 'long range' flank attacks dropped significantly as we learnt how to avoid them.
Arguably our battle plans have generally become more 'historical' as a result - go figure!