I think you touched on most of the major things.
I'd like a harder difficulty though, maybe even adjustable difficulty settings. Though getting an "S" on all the stages is hard at times (Ace Combat 04 was easier in that respect), I can't recall dying more than a few times.
A Macross Plus & Macross 7 game would be terrific. Just imagine flying around in your VF-11 while watching Basara sing to the enemies you are trying to shoot down at first, then maybe doing it yourself (Jamming Birds).
For Plus, you can have the Super Nova project itself as many of the levels...imagine strafing runs, missle avoidance,etc. Then, playing as Isamu or Guld you can dogfight each other, then the Ghost. Sounds short though.
Just at the top of my head.