Turning off auto turn works wonders here, IMO.

When you have to click or hit enter to end your turn, you're more concious of scanning the screen for those "zzz" idle signs or notifications on the right since you're more likely to think "am I ready to end this turn?"  You also have that distinct changing of the turn so you more readily look for those new notifications on the right (along with the "zzz" idle shows up at the beginning of turns).

The existing notification isn't so bad unless you have auto turn on and fly thru with no distinct turns.

I play GalCiv and Civ the same way - distinct turns, no auto ending of turns.

I highly dislike that mechanic as well. Even more than the Magic Leveling system. I never ever ever build anything that only adds when the queue is idle, and would only consider doing so very late game when there is nothing else for that city to build again, ever.

Have those buildings give us a "construction" option for Wealth, Research, and Mana, and have any building that used to give a "bonus when idle" improve the production to resource ratio thereof. I would rather explicitly apply production to the generation of a resource than implicitly gain it by not spending my production on something else.

I take it that no one in this thread has ever made the tragic error of selecting 'Epic'. If you do, most of your cities will be idle most of the time and you will be jolly grateful for any bonus (especially research) that you get. Or you can run your pop to zero building units you can't afford. I like games that take a long time to unfold and are about strategy, not just tactics. On this measure, FE Epic is epic fail.