This is a not a bug but a balance change.

Otherwise it's quite annoying to play well a campaign only to discover real-life days into it that the RnG gods have doomed it because of an accidental clustering of the bases.

My first game, I found a second Phoenix point base as the next closest blip on the map. Thought it was intentional. By the mid-late game, I realised; no, no it was not - and both bases were being constantly assaulted by Pandorans every ~30 hours. Sucked so much ass

I agree. It is very disappointing when you have one ship + 4-6 soldiers, you are two weeks into the campaign, and any chance of getting a specific faction to 25%+ is dashed because when you click on their mission for the first time the globe spins to the opposite side. I will never get there any time soon, not in the first month, and maybe barely by the end of the 2nd. It takes so long to build a 2nd crew, let alone a 3rd that might fly to that distant location.

I hit the quit to desktop button and have no interest in restarting, hoping for a closer result.

Make the mission appear in a haven I already have uncovered.

This is a bigger problem that people think. These missions are key to accessing faction equipment.

I have watched 100 different people on twitch try this game out.

They meet factions, decide which one they want to ally with and try to do that faction missions. Missions spawns on other side of the globe, they ignore closer factions and go for that one they chose. They cannot until later, but aliens get buffed and get more armor while these players still have no access to better tech and they get destroyed and complain about how the game is unbalanced.

Genius idea, Eric, you are the glue that is holding this company together through sheer intellect. You are also very handsome.