Pretty much agreed:
*Dark Ambition - more annoying than difficult indeed. Especially when you can manage to start finishing off the units and they start abusing the HQ. Repairs from that are especially annoying when done on the....Mega....Tank. That's right. The Bolt Guard has a Mega Tank here! While the AN is having to recover from a mass attack ambush on their factories! And the BG wouldn't have the damn thing if Green Earth hadn't created it and therefore Black Hole wouldn't be able to reverse engineer it.
*Pincer Strike - this would be Fake Difficulty incarnate if Megalopolis hadn't taken that (dis)honor. If you don't do the 3 day thing, which most players are never going to think of without seeing the guide--and I myself am not going to waste my time, I don't have the patience--guess what? You have to contend with that h4x Tag Break unless you abuse Sasha's Market Crash.
*Ring of Fire - exactly why it's a mess. Apparently, Intelligent Systems doesn't expect you to even stand a chance on the top front. Well, WHY DO THEY DO THAT? At least other game companies (like Square about Lavos and the Golem in Chrono Trigger) give a workable reason as to why certain fights aren't even expected to be won. But here, there's no reason. Clone Kanbei's units won't even be around in later maps, Clone Kanbei himself is gone, etc.
*Surrounded - I used Eagle and Sasha, I recall. But yeah, TBs should not exist.
*For The Future - poor map design indeed. It's at least somewhat better designed than the NC counterpart, but the Megatank didn't stop you, huh?
*Mean To The End - the most disappointing final battle on a hard difficulty level I have ever seen. It's more about shaking off the initial strikes and Mr. Bolt won't even be managing that effectively.
*Combat Mode - agreed, though I find the Mechs useless instead of the Artillery. Artillery does splash damage at least. (Although to be honest, Mechs are inexpensive.)