The clues/guess the killer portions of the game only present themselves during the "stop" aspects of play, so that's not really an issue.

There is the potential for fast loops, etc. but if you choose to only play the game that way you will never be presented with the option to solve the cases. And you'll only be seeing about 40% of the game IMHO.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out who the killer is for each case. As lordnorth said, it's a pinball machine first and foremost.

But as lordnorth also pointed out, identifying the killer and actually solving the case for the purpose of gameplay are two separate and distinct things. There are multiple pinball things you have to complete even after you identify the killer if you wish to solve each particular case. The "catch the killer" stuff is just a means of setting up the necessary shots in the game. Really no different than any other mode-based game.

SSSteve - kind of unknown at this point. No regrets as change is always good. Just not sure myself, need to spend more time on it.