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Indeed. One thing that I find is somewhat lost when you're theorycrafting a design is the enjoyment of the actual physical interaction the player gets to do - this is something that's actually caused me to change some of my ideas that seemed really great on paper but just weren't as fun as they should be in the game. Being able to manually place your base is an example of this; it makes the game feel far more freeform and exciting than choosing from a number of pre-set locations. Similarly the current Main Base screen is less enjoyable than it should be because you're just clicking a room slot and selecting what building you want to put in there from a list like in XCOM; I think the interaction in Xenonauts 1 where you pick a building and then move it around on a grid and choose where to place it is fundamentally more satisfying even though the gameplay effect is essentially the same (we're most likely going to move to a grid-based system for that reason). As Max says I think you can get the effect of the "starting base" choice whilst keeping the more enjoyable interaction just by giving you your bonuses based on the region you place that base in.