If you chose 3rd gear, you'd accelerate to the top speed in that gear. If you wanted to slow down, you'd have to drop into 2nd and then you'd be travelling at the top speed for that gear. Now, you can stop accelerating anywhere between gears and drive whatever speed you want. Much more realistic and better.
Nonsense. You didn't have to shift gears to slow down, you just pulled back on the stick a little (or a lot, if you wanted to stop faster). You could downshift or not depending on your intentions.
You're talking about setting a cruise speed, which is something different.
Also, you're still focused on debating whether the new system or the old system is better, which is not the point. Just because the new system is better overall doesn't mean every single aspect of it is necessarily better, or that it couldn't be made a little *more* better (is there a grammatically correct way to say that?) with a few minor changes. So "the new system is better" addresses nothing, aside from the small minority who've been demanding that it be changed back (which was never going to happen anyway).
However, I'll wait and see what the new-new system looks like before making further judgments in that regard.