Looks like the masses have spoken in regards to the finish. Will definitely work on the weld grinding but the difference in colour is unavoidable.
The model name will not be changed though. I think it's a little too late for that. Too many SOULs on the frame and people were complaining, I guess it's one of those you can't please everyone type of situations. Anyways the Faith word is not very noticeable.
In regards to the weight/ stiffness, the frame is optimised for stiffness first then weight. We could have gone for a smaller and round Top tube and downtube. That would have shaved about 100g off the frame. Instead we went for a bigger tapering tube which increased stiffness but obviously made it heavier. We will look into shaving a couple of grams by going with a thinner tube but it's already triple butted, I doubt we can shave that much off. At 1200g, it's already decently light for an alloy frame I feel. Any lighter also and we may end up with a coke can. It's definitely inline with the weight of a cadd. I predict the stiffness is very close if not more than a cadd, but can only confirm with a side by side test (anyone care to carry one out?)
Thanks to the mostly positive comments, I would just like to say that this frame owes a big part to the online community especially this forum.