Ok, my two cents, based also on how I do play science.
First I'd like to say that I find the general idea of expanding the biome system by adding an altitude / latitude element. I also like the expansion of possible experiments.
Now, what I do not like in the way science is done right now is the "instant" results. I try to play "real hard", that is hard campaign and realistic mission management. For realistic management i mean that for me a mission is over only when personnel is back at the runway and equipment is either: a) back at runway; b) destroyed; c) stranded and marked as debris pending recovery (yes, I do have a lot of clutter laying around but it makes those tourist's missions more interesting).
This takes me to the point. When personnel lands at the runway it has all the science reports of the mission for processing in my "science bug" farm. Then science starts to come out slowly and has to be transmitted to the KSC. Well what I'd like would be the R&D complex to work in a similar way getting prepared science data from missions and reports (and maybe differentiating science and engineering research, the former to unlock a technology, the latter to unlock the parts in that technology, but that might be too much complicated for casual players)
I also would suggest to drastically reduce the number of KSC biomes to avoid the "rolling pin ship" grind at the beginning (or make them more difficult to reach as a "VAB roof", "Administration pond", "Island old runway control tower" biome ).
Please feedback on how you like this kind of idea, I will try to elaborate more (and maybe go for a mod).
My Science bug farm: