Re: too close. I was not intending to impugn your driving ability - merely reflecting on why almost everyone using the ACC for the first time, including you and me, were a trifle inconvenienced by the seemingly super-safe auto-slow
Re: Middle lane hogs. My suggestion is not laziness but a lack of confidence in the use of mirrors, in particular, the door mirrors. If, for instance, it were fear of being trapped on the inside lane by inconsiderate overtakers, that would be defensible, though not justifiable. But it wouldn't explain why they're reluctant to overtake using the right hand lane. If it IS to do with the use if mirrors then that's a level of (in)competence which means that they shouldn't be on the road in the first place - a conclusion you've probably already reached but by another route
ACC is a refinement of CC rather than an alternative. And imagine the US lawsuits from American drivers blaming the ACC for failing to stop them hitting the car in front when really they were in CC mode