Dom3 will be what?? Some annoying questions

[tinkthank]

Hello, I was away for quite some time, returned to see dom3 "announced" -- yet when I try to find out more information about it, I come up blank.

I searched the forum here and found my own thread, here:

my question on dom3 annoucement on this board

in which Mindi kindly posted this link

here
to the Shrapnel announcement, but that no longer appears when one clicks on the link.

So basically, I cannot see the press release anymore. I saw it only once, then I had to return to my RL-ness and my absence of dom2 (also partly due to dom2 burnout, but like the phoenix, or maybe just like a ghoul, I am back), and I only remember vaguely what I had read. Illwinter has still not updated their site.

My vague memories of the press release have it down as this:
Dom3 will be like dom2, except that there will be 20 nations, and a couple of new goodies.

I am sort of confused as to what this means. I wanted to refresh my memory and re-read the press release, but I find nothing but wish lists.

Now I feel bad about asking the next question, because I really love dom2, I love Illwinter, and I support them and Shrapnel with much fervor. Maybe I dont support Illwinter as much as Gandalf and the mods and others do, with so much resources and websites, but I do what I can.
I remember debates back in March or whenever when I had proposed making an "expansion pack" for dom2, and this was shot down nearly unanimously by most fans here, most explicitly and strategically by Arryn, who said expansion packs were just ways for companies to make an extra buck.

Well, what I dont understand is: Why dom3? From the press release, which I can no longer quote, it sounds very much like an expansion pack in the sense that it describes a dom2-like atmosphere, but just a bit bigger (20 nations instead of 17, IIRC). (There will not, for example (unless I am gravely mistaken) be new graphics a la Warcraft III, or whatever.) So what exactly will make it a new game? Am I justified in thinking to myself that this will be much like an expansion pack?
A discussion like this, as annoying as it may be to you, would be helpful to me in gauging what I should consider as a helpful and meaningful contribution to dom3 wishlists and in understanding the way that dom2 will be further developed.
Thanks very much