I disagree from not showing the package GUID just because it does show the version number that was deployed.  But there should be an option to automatically update the package GUID if there is no other difference in the packaged object.

So you dont have to click update on 20 policies that didn't actually change.

As for the policy linkage i understand the reason for the linkage but the if the id is different it should be ignored or better yet it should not deploy the actual internal designer ID.  The linkage is important for tracking the policy link to policy set but the stupid internal ID that is only used by designer so it should not be deployed to the IDVault at all.

Please have this feature cover all package meta data, i.e. also DirXML-pkgLinkages .

The dropdown menu (top-right on the screenshot) would be a perfect place to replace the existing "Show differences" option with "Show functional differences" and "Show all differences" (including metadata).Maybe even an option "Show metadata differences" would be helpful in some cases.

The line between "functional" and "metadata" should be drawn where something affects driver functionality and object processing or not, imho.

PS: thinking about it, I see no reason why Designer should not handle DirXML-pkgLinkages totally transparent to the user. It's basically Designer-interal helper metadata that people designing IDM solutions should not be bothered with in the first place.