I do see your arguments and I do believe you have some very true observations on "wide peaceful". And given the current trees, I would probably dip into a few before finishing one.
But as has been pointed out, the proposals are not revolutionary, but they're a good basis, recognizable to new players of the mod and still sufficiently different. We already give the new happiness system to mule over for new players, so it may be better for the policy trees to be "understandable on first look".
Having said that, I'd really like to try out how the settler in the honor tree will influence AI conquerors. Playtesting will help us much more than anything else.
And again, Civilization: Beyond Earth is looming and will take a lot of interest away from this. Let's have a playble thing out by then (Policies, Leaders, Religion, Buildings, Victory Conditions rebalanced, Espionage).