OP please correct if I'm wrong but in your first post when you mentioned that you had played X-Com before Xenonauts, I think judging by your comments you are talking about X-Com: Enemy Unknown which is the game released in 2012 by Firaxis. I am thinking that you perhaps don't realise that Xenonauts is NOT based on that game, but is actually based off a game released in (I think) 1994, called X-Com: UFO Defence in the US, and UFO: Enemy Unknown in the EU and AUS.
Unless I've missed it, I think this is a big source of your confusion. Many of us who love Xenonauts loved the original game from 20 years ago.
The more recent X-Com: Enemy Unknown that you have played is a re-imagining of the original, but Xenonauts literally is a direct remake of the original, or to put it another way, Xenonauts is the same game done better.
I hope this helps.