I enjoyed the OP and largely agree on all points. I did, however, have additional grievances over technical issues on the PC version and the load times (which aren't even necessary in the PC version but aren't removed) are ridiculous.
The final score would be around an 8 for me too, perhaps a tad higher with a couple of patches.
I'm not sure why I wasn't infatuated with this game the same way the rest of the world was, I have a good friend who loves this to death and when he talks about it I almost feel like we played two completely different games.
It could be that I'm not really that into science fiction or it could be that I enjoy more depth in RPG's but I just couldn't fall in love with it and I certainly can't identify with the people who see this as the best game of the generation (or even best RPG).
No matter though, it was a good read!