If I understand the Scaler timing for playback there are two parts to setting it.
Globally playback timing can be set to a range from 1/2 beat to 16 beats in the Settings page (click on the littkle gear wheel at the titop right to open this)
This sets a base for playing back every chord/block in the patterns and the default is 4 beats (i.e. when playing back the Scaler patterns every block will play for 4 beats).
Individual blocks can be edited in the EDIT page which I think resolves many of @swingmix 's issues with rhythm. For more information on this I have prepared a short tuorial here.
More complex rhythms may be used by binding to midi clips which can also mitigate the limited (7) number of patterns.
As for volume I would like to see more patterns, again each of 8 blocks.
Spending a little time playing with Scaler has taught me how flexible it is, and whilst it may be a bit awkward I think that adding some hot keys and or more drop down menus to enable easier navigation would solve the issues with making it simpler, although it is pretty simple to navigate between pages.
I would hate to lose the flexibility for the sake of ease of use when actually it is not difficult to use or navigate around.