I doubt anyone has a major issue with the missing ships and cannons per se, or the new use of flag based icons. From the comments I was able to follow, before Enriador went 10 pounds of bat-shit crazy in a 5 pound bag, the issue was that the shapes and size of the chosen new icons are not dissimilar enough to provide a clear read of the map and unit positioning. This would certainly be my criticism of the new icons. I actually like the flags, and find them quite attractive. I would also note that the cannon and ship units mentioned are rather droll icons, but they are easily distinguishable. With the falgs presented here I just cannot clearly see what is an army, and what is a fleet because the look so similar, and that's viewing them on a PC. Imagine trying to view these icons on a mobile phone as so many players do these days.
As for the variant, the map is otherwise pleasing, but it remains unclear why this particular incarnation of the European map has been created. The reasons provided by Enriador on the opening post make no sense to me. They imply some kind of flawed design with the original "Classic" map, which simply does no exist. Now if the reason that map changes were made was to promote some manner of predisposition to historical alliances in some 'Edwardian' era, then that might make more sense. But no such rational has been provided. Maybe there was a design to see what play was like starting with more than three units, but again this is not mentioned. Perhaps as the variant designer, you can elaborate on the reasons for the map changes.