I agree quite a lot that there is too much micromanagement required to make DF a great game for me.
I think the game would be more enjoyable for people that have an interest in the game but might be time poor if there were the option of templates within the game to give the option that game events would require less intervention. The game can retain the option of zero templates for people who get their kicks out of building a fortress to custom specs.
The wood cutting is a good example. What I really want to know is that for a given area of forest and a given number of woodcutters at work I'll have a supply of wood that is a) less than b) more than or c) just right for my needs based on workshops/production etc. To be honest I don't really care enough to have to select the trees that I want said woodcutters to chop down. That might be a nifty feature for those who need that bed to be ash to complement the bedroom decor. But for me it's overkill.
A similar example is mining out the terrain. What I would like to be able to do is tell my miners how much of an area I would like mined, in three dimensions ideally. I'd like to be able to set ratios for the work, so room sizes and connectors would be automatically opened up based on total number of fort meeting rooms/dining rooms etc, but then ratios for workshop sized rooms, storerooms, pantries, barracks/armouries/bedrooms. The enjoyment of fortress design only lasts so long when the work itself is actually like work. I wouldn't particularly mind the randomised and potentially inefficient designs that my dwarfs came up with if it involved me setting the parameters, the area to be mined, the type of work (domestic / defence / exploration / minerals) and templates made a decent hash of instructing the miners to go and finish it off.
I could continue but I understand that the micro- element of fortress design is what makes it so interesting to a lot of people. But to me, I really don't have sufficient time to want to immerse myself in that design aspect - at a micro level - what I would look for is to know that if I have industry space mined out, resources being collected, and workers on hand, that the dwarves will make stuff. Or, domestic space/furtniture etc. Dwarves will make themselves places to live. etc.