I just played through the early game, and I have a few thoughts to sahre.
- until the first floor appears, it's just vanilla factorio, and not that interesting, compared to the stressful experience of playing warptorio in 1.1.
- the waves being time based and not pollution based feels weird to me, though that's probably just taste.
- the fact that there are no harvester platforms to unlock just makes setting up of mines tedious. One very enjoyable aspect of the 1.1 version is the logistics of managing what resource is coming in when. This feels absent in the few hours I played.
- I haven't understood how the planets are unlocked either, there's nothing in explicit in the tech tree. I'm guessing it just happens upon unlocking some technologies? A few descriptions would help, or even explicit techs.
- The lack of space is too extreme, the two extra floors in 1.1 allowed dedicated setups on each floor, here I feel like everything needs to be handfed to get anywhere.
- I really like the full power on factory floor aspect!
Disclaimer, I played (and loved) the Warptorio 2 Expansion, but on my own, so that's kinda my difficulty level of expectations...
Thank you for doing this port!
If you take only one thing from this feedback, it's the missing floors/space.

It really opens up once you unlock blue science and start getting on the new planets. A lot of new planet techs are very OP so you dont need all the extra space.

But I do agree with you that early game with the changes is a drag. I ended up building a self sufficient red/green factory on the starter planet because it keeps functioning even after you leave. That gave me the early game boost to do all the red/green research "for free" and after unlocking blue then its a battle to unlock everything on the new planets as you jump inbetween them.

• until the first floor appears, it's just vanilla factorio, and not that interesting, compared to the stressful experience of playing warptorio in 1.1.
  Answer: I actually prefer that I can take it at my own pace at start, but I do understand that its not for everyone. I can introduce setting that will toggle the new way and the more rushed and forced approach. Would that be enough?

• the waves being time based and not pollution based feels weird to me, though that's probably just taste.
  Answer: Waves are both time and pollution based. Main reason is, that I can use the wave counter to spawn bosses and extra attacks

• the fact that there are no harvester platforms to unlock just makes setting up of mines tedious. One very enjoyable aspect of the 1.1 version is the
  Answer: I liked harvester floor as well, but there is much smaller need for it in space age. After you unlock all planets your need for harvester floor changes a lot. There is also research to unlock warp-chest. I plan to add research for warp power as well, but for now its not there

• I haven't understood how the planets are unlocked either, there's nothing in explicit in the tech tree. I'm guessing it just happens upon unlocking some technologies? A few descriptions would help, or even explicit techs.
  Answer: Right now this is hidden behind blue science. I want to make it more obvious, but that will take time.

• The lack of space is too extreme, the two extra floors in 1.1 allowed dedicated setups on each floor, here I feel like everything needs to be handfed to get anywhere.
  Answer: There is actually more space now. To work around planet specific researches main floor is now ground floor. Getting gleba and blue science is the point where the game actually opens fully (thanks to more space)

Thanks for the feedback. Getting feedback like this is the main reason why it was released so early.

is it deleberate that the level 3 platform tech required gelba science? feels like a stretch to get it that early. Also is there any way to move fluids between floors?

is it deleberate that the level 3 platform tech required gelba science? feels like a stretch to get it that early. Also is there any way to move fluids between floors?

Yes that is intended there is also time extension locked behind Gleba science. As for moving fluids they can all be processed on ground floor, but also moved by barrels if needed.