I think I answered most of this in the
other post. Yes, if you need to see a date in the start date column (or due date column, for that matter) next to each action, you need to explicitly assign one. I find this to be a non-issue in practice, and don't bother. I have a lot of repeating tasks that have start and/or due dates, so my display is well populated with dates, and it is pretty apparent where a block of actions without explicit start/due dates starts. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Also, I use start dates to describe when I can start work on something, not to prescribe when I will start work, so my concern is more with such holes in the upcoming due date display, and hopefully reviewing projects with the review feature is keeping me on top of impending blizzards of work that must get done by a certain date/time. Forecast view on the iPad is also quite helpful, and will be quite popular when it comes to the Mac, I'm certain!