I'm a great fan of simplicity. SSR's, long-winded rules to define small matters, for me are distracting. I love to play ASL, but don't have much time to play or fuss with those kind of details. I'm getting older too - and the older I get the less fuss is wanted.
Overloading these Soviet-style villages with either too much terrain or too many rules seems to be moving in the wrong direction. I say, keep the terrain spare and simple. Apply the 'design-for-effect' principle (using existing terrain and rules to effectively represent what we want. ie: using Brush to represent crops, Orchards to represent light trees, Hedges to represent low-lying bushes, Wooden buildings or Huts to represent the shabby little wooden shacks).
Since the OP, I've been designing several new Russian/Ukrainian looking boards using authentic photographic source materials. I've designed mainly small, strung-out villages, but also other kinds of 'Soviet' looking boards such as large towns (not cities), open farmland, hills, etc..
It's true - ASL has not portrayed Russia/Ukraine terrain well enough to date as Mark says. The majority of ASL terrain so far has represented European terrain; dense, ornate, substantial..., and has done that pretty well. Russian/Ukrainian terrain on the other hand has been neglected. I think this is true for a couple reasons; 1) designers have a limited knowledge of what this terrain was really like - we're products of our own environment, 2) standard ASL play lends itself to wanting a lot of terrain; ie. the play of the game needs places to fight from, rout to, hide in, etc.. More authentic Russian/Ukrainian terrain can do that, but just a bit differently.
I hope that the MMP guys will be open to the idea of more Russian/Ukrainian terrain types, because there's a mess of them coming their way soon