All the reservations I've had about TNs, Travel, loss of Cultural Rewards, loss of preliminary rolls etc., I've kind of come to peace with and am slowly embracing and looking forward to how this all plays out in a published adventure. The Councils are my last major holdout... I just cannot find many silver linings with this new system that is replacing a great system that worked just fine.
As someone said upthread, some of the rules and innovations re: Councils in 1st edition came in other books than the core rules.
So I suspect that, as with many other things, the Core books is designed to be as slick, bloat-free and efficient as possible, so that no unnecessary mechanics have to be dealt with afterwards.
There will be plenty of time after the Core book publication to publish extra rules, mechanics and possibilities that will add to the core rules.
I know some people might be frustrated to not get the full experience right from the start, but I think it's a wise move personally, even if I'll be as impatient as the others to get the advanced rules.
Same thing with Journeys, Traits, etc.
You weren't expecting to get everything all at once now, did you?