You're definitely right.
Do you remember what Wags announced for the latest patch update:
3- Frame rates returned to 1.2.0 levels. This was done through a combination of adjusting building LoDs, optimized performance on some graphics cards, and adjusting water rendering.
Although, even past versions suffered from several graphic issues, ED is istill not focusing on graphic optimization and related bugs.
Perhaps they have money for monster rigs but not enough time to make the customer game time pleasant.
I appreciate the hard work done so far by ED, anyway, : )!