The goal of the EMU should not be to get as close to live as possible. It should be to improve on live. The original EnB was fun but it still could have used a lot of improvement.
The Dev's have doing a great job with making the Emulator really fun to play.
Im not sure if this respawn change is a nerf or a buff. It may actually make more asteroids available than previously.
The field clear bonus is nice at low levels but by the time u get to mining L8/9 asteroids you get more xp from the mining than the bonuses.