The two things that annoyed me the most about the first game where the ending and the lack of maps.
The ending really restrained you, too.. and the fact that you structured the way you did meant that we only got to see a few praetors in action before the last mission (where you could one-shot him from afar with the right team, at least in the 2nd difficulty).
I guess that if you do set out to make a remake, procedural or semi-procedural map generation should be a priority. You have no idea how much replay-ability that alone gives to a game.
I agree with you that you should really focus on making the maps in general more attractive, as they were a little bit bland in a lot of scenarios... And if possible aim for 100% destructibility.
