Yeah, I'm pretty mixed here too. The dotted lines made a lot more sense with the previous iteration, same with the blocks you have to shoot at. It was also, in my opinion, more rewarding to get good at that version of the game. On the other hand, this version feels a lot more intuitive for new players (especially once you start thinking of it as a dash) and makes it a lot easier to just do what you want to do.
At the moment the plan is to include both shooting methods in the full game, and have separate leaderboards for each choice. Maybe it would be better to just scrap the whole shooting mechanic, but I believe it'll be easier for people to get used to dashing if we add a bunch more levels of just shooting to move.
The mode you mention will be in the final version, and it's already in the Steam demo with online leaderboards.
Thanks for the feedback!
