John,
To be honest I was kinda disapointed by the CD Box as well, but to be really honest I shelved the box the day it arrived and Im sure it will never move from this place.
the main reasons I pre ordered was because of the pre release of the game, which turn out very bad for me as I couldn't download the game until after the non preordered guys did !
I tried countless times with errors everytime (mac version here), at the end I waited like 2 or 3 days reading reports from users on this forum lol.
The other reason was the manuals, and I must say I really like them, especially as you said the spiral binding is the way to go for this kind of document.
I only wish the Game Menu and briefing screens would be as readable as the manuals, because as it is the font is way too small for my taste and I still dont understand why there is so much blank space in theses screens. But Maybe Im getting old, well my eyes are getting old for sure !
Dimitri.