I hope they're able to keep it somewhat playable for casual players too - I might jump in when 2.0 comes out, but I don't have the time for games that I used to. It'd be nice if it can still be an enjoyable experience only playing for an hour a week.
I think the end result of a lot of these measures will work a balance between the two crowds, much the same as we have now.
Does a casual player need to understand the difference between toggling COMSTAB, GSafe, decouple, etc? Not really. They can get in a ship, push the throttle forward, and it will fly (and there is even an auto-land function for those that want it). They can select a few basic flight modes that they tend to see in most space games already.
But for those who are into the
sim component and want a deeper, more customizable flight experience, those options will be there.
I do think, however, that PvP combat will definitely maintain a fairly high skill ceiling, and PvE (as we see in Vanduul Swarm) is certainly not easy for new players.
This game is about a lot more than just combat though. I think there will be plenty of appeal for those who have no desire to get into a strafe war with a Hornet or go on a bomb run in a Retaliator.
I honestly love dogfighting, but I plan to spend as much or more of my time peacefully exploring. CIG has made it pretty clear from the start that they want success in every area of this game to be "skill based," however, so I would expect some amount of digging to be necessary for almost any path.