I know what you mean, as it totally dulls the throttle response, changes up gears as the earliest opportunity and also drops the box into neutral when coasting above 30 mph. It also changes the behaviour of the climate control system, but as you can see it adds up to an impressive result. When you're just cruising along it's very unobtrusive, but in stop/start traffic it's a little frustrating.
I too don't use it over short distances, but on a long run it makes a lot of sense. I will cover about 25k miles a year in this car, mostly business miles, so the more economical it is on these long runs the better off I am. I'm paid 20ppm (+ tax relief on the difference to 45ppm/25ppm), but at £1.18/litre & 44 mpg I'm already better off by 7.8ppm (before the tax relief)! This all contributes towards running the car.
