Well it does sound like character stuff is in, though. If Fåhraeus isn't working on this, there's a decent chance it's because he's working on CK3. They're still working on CK2 DLC, but he hasn't been (visibly) involved in it for a while, and it's been like half a year since they said that they'd be winding down on it (which means that this grab bag of features may well be the last DLC) so it's either that or he's retreated to a purely administrative role, which I doubt. Or he's working on Vicky 3 or something new, but I doubt that even more.
Also, EU: Rome came out long after Crusader Kings, and is way less character oriented, so I think the narrative of it as a predecessor to CK's sequel is a bit rough. I think Johan's statement is more about the paradigm of who you play as, and not about the depth of the character system. He may be saying it now in order to head off the many CK2 fans (who were disappointed at the shallow implementation of characters in Stellaris) or he may just be answering a question honestly, without a deeper marketing narrative. He may not be the same guy, but after Fåhraeus, he's the Paradox dev I trust second most to do a good job, and the proper pop system is probably his doing - and I wouldn't be surprised if we get a relatively deep trade system from him too, though the fact that it's not in the announcement may indicate that they're not yet confident it'll be a core feature of the game.
My main point of confusion is Iberia, though. I'd figure it was just unexplored or uncolonized if it weren't for the fact that the Sahara is the same color. Doesn't make an awful lot of sense for 65% of Iberia to not exist, imo.
My guess is that they just haven't implemented that bit yet, but they figured it would be good enough for the purpose of a promotional screenshot since it looks almost the same anyway.