so what your asking for, is to be able to crouch. and then move around crouched in the hope that if an alien gets reaction fire on you, that the reduced profile will give you a better chance of missing?
if your tactics involve running men across an aliens path of fire what you need to do is re-evaluate your tactics, not demand a new feature which would only be helpful in 1 situation, that situation being:
that by some miracle, the entire path you want to cross has a piece of chest high wall between you and the alien.
not to mention moving in such a fashion would require a higher cost in AP per tile moved...
it's a LOT of work for the artist to do just for the sake of a feature people wont use.
and xenonauts IS essentially a remake of X-COM, but there's plenty new. new research, new weapons, new armour. i think Chris is trying to stick to the feel of the original. if you want a brand new all signing all dancing XCOM, wait until October. (also is it really necessary to underline and red paint everything? it makes your post seem like deliberate flame bait =/)