Well after my harddrive crash and the fact I didnt have my FL number saved and... some people dropped the ball on my account recovery.. I got a tad frustrated at loseing a few bil in assets and credits I took a break for several months returned and found myself abit in distress as alot of things..ship locations, trade routes ect had been toggled around abit, took a week or two of researching and traveling around to get into the hang of things again myself. But I'm rather enjoying the system improvements, new ships ect. So in short I can feel what your saying to an extent, do alittle homework and things will kick back into place.
I think the issue is perhaps that there is too much choice now for my liking. Before there were very limited options when it came to routes and even loadouts. Now it's perhaps a bit too big?!
I actually find it easier. In 4.84 I'd just go to the Wiki or look in the ini files because ships were scattered in random places all over. Now it's rather simple, you just go to the guard system of the faction you want to fly. Most, if not all the ships available are in there.