So I've played a couple of games with just the patch, and a few with Thal's latest version. Here are my thoughts:
1) Navies: I really like the strength of navies right now. They feel like a strong piece of the military that is important to use. I will say that submarines seem incredibly strong (84 ranged strength!). They kill destroyers with a single shot!
2) Policies: I feel most of the policy branches are pretty useful right now. To me, there are 2 exceptions:
Commerce: Commerce right now feels like the blandest tree. There just isn't much to get excited about that doesn't require a lot of investment (sure +3 prod to all coastal cities is nice, but it takes 3 policies to get it!).
Autocracy: There is nothing wrong with the techs of autocracy, its the restrictions that's the problem. Autocracy doesn't allow for liberty...and why it makes sense based on the name, it doesn't make sense mechanically. Autocracy is about conquest, which leads to a big empire. Liberty is the big empire tree. The fact I can't use both just feels off and really weakens Autocracy to me.
3) Gold: I feel that gold is too plentiful with the new patch. In my recent king game I had +200 GPT without golden ages with just 4 cities, and I wasn't even trying. I think its partly the new unit maintenance, and partly the seaport +1 gold per tile combined with 2 gold sea tile base. Overall I think the seaport +1 gold tile might be a bit much. I am all for giving sea a bonus gold early on. Sea powers have always been economic ones so it makes good sense. However, bumping them to 3 gold later on I think is too much.
I might suggest a seaport change of +1 gold per fish, pearl, or whale....or removing the gold bonus and providing a +15 xp for naval units (currently navies can only get 15 xp per buildings, while land units can get 55).
4) Siege: I generally like the new mechanics to siege, making them city killers instead of general unit killers.
I do feel that cannons at ranged strength 31 are a bit strong. They are only 1 strength less than artillery and come a lot sooner. I find they still kick the crap out of many similar and later era units.
5) Specialists: I think the new patch removed too many specialist slots...but I think this mod went a bit overboard. It seems like everything and its mother has a specialist slot, allowing for huge swings with great people.
6) Culture: Generally I've liked the changes to culture (especially the museum). Even not going for hard culture I had enough policies to do some tailoring.
One idea I would like to see is a courthouse-esque building for culture. Perhaps a building like a "forum" that reduces the culture increase of a building by 50% or something like that.
I'm still in the old school camp that says big civs shouldn't be hugely penalized for culture. I think its fine that big civs have to work harder, but they shouldn't be taken out of the running entirely.
Overall, its still the best mod out there, and makes the game more interesting. Go Thal, keep up the good work!