Well, Escort is there, I rarely use it - and when I do, it is usually to send a bunch of ship to a far away location with the "escortee" as the leader. But it is there. Center is also there, I use that a lot.
I think there was a demo where I was showing out of range warnings now for Carriers if they are leaving planes behind. That is probably what you saw. That's a new feature, as I am often a victim of stranding my planes with my carriers. For out of range warnings, they do popup and there is no way to keep that from happening, but only if the air unit is going out of range. There has been an added feature that helps this, and that is a box outlining the "Half Range" distance when the air unit is at base, so that is easier to mark, and when it is out and about there is a box showing its remaining endurance, which also makes it easier to tell when you are reaching its limits. MY habit before the box was to just send it way out in a dir until the warning came up, which is also probably why you saw them a lot.