I'm at a bit of a loss here, as I couldn't  locate the Space user manual for comparison.  As much as I can determine from your post, though, the aux switch and expression pedal routings to each other (and the MIDI transmission capabilities) are available in the Pitchfactor.  [RCV CTL] has a PDL selection, and [XMT CC] both has PDL, TIP, RNG, and T+P options.  These are very powerful combinations, to be sure.

With any more than two pedals daisy-chained together, I'm not sure how you'd get around the exclusive XMT -or- Thru setting in the MIDI [OUTPUT] selection, without adding a MIDI Thru box of some kind.  Space has broken some other ET stompbox conventions, so I'll be curious to see its complete implementation.

As for eliminating MIDI controllers … I'll play the devil's advocate here.  The keyboardists among us might take exception to that.    And some floor setups favor a more 'centralized' approach, with switches transmitting multiple program changes.  Or perhaps the master MIDI clock resides with the drummer or another performer's sequencer.  And if someone were to own a Moog MP-201, or even a discontinued Lexicon MPX-1, they could take advantage of of the MIDI Xmit to actually add 'new features / algorithms'  to Eventide stompboxes.

As much as I'd like to consolidate the gear down to a minimum, there's always something that makes it just a little better.  Again, no Space manual here, but I'm very interested to see what it brings to the table.  Apologies in advance if I've misinterpreting something here.