Tssha

That is correct. The automatic ones take up no room at all, but the manual ones need a slot, and need to be manually accepted.

First, I haven't gotten in game yet for the latest patch, but I think it's both that you can right-click on the part to see its temperature, and it'll change colour if it's exposed to a lot of heat for some reason. No colour change? No significant temperature change. But I could be wrong. Second, and this answer I'm definite on, you have to upgrade the runway itself. Just like you have to upgrade the launchpad, you're gonna have to right-click on the runway itself, upgrade it, and that'll...mostly smooth it out. It'll be totally smooth by the third and final upgrade, but it's 90% of the way there with the first upgrade (to tier two). More verbose answers than Crown's. Glad to know I'm on the same page though.

Docking Port Alignment Indicator: Mostly works. It's functional, but every time you launch a vehicle, it creates a duplicate icon in the toolbar. Once you get up to four or more launches in a single game session, it gets a little silly. Past 4, there are arrows for scrolling through the various duplicate icons.