Yes but actually maneuvering the units was fun itself. It accentuated things like mechanical reliability, portaging dismantled SW and moving units with different MF/MP.
In fact, I agree with you.
I vividly remember coming across one of "ye olde ones" and experiencing just that.
It felt different, and personally, I liked it.
In "modern" scenarios, you usually get insta-action. But if you don't have a solid setup, you're screwed, because there is no time to alleviate for mistakes during the course of the game. So you need to spend time thinking before the game actually starts.
In the old scenarios, it did not really harm to quickly pile your units into rough areas and then let the "start of action" develop as both sides moved to close in. You did not have to have a plan before game start but both sides would develop it as part of the game during the first two turns while reacting to the moves of the opponent. A much more relaxed approach.
von Marwitz