D&D 5E - So today I realised that half-casters in 5e actually have a distinct feel

Hmmm. Under this interpretation, the ranger can binary search to find out exact locations with some effort, or merely to get distances with minimal effort, which makes it better than the druid's Commune With Nature ritual. I'm not really convinced that this is RAW, but I suppose if the ranger PC at my table asked to use it this way I'd probably let him, because otherwise it's almost pointlessly weak.

I agree that intelligence on threats is always great to have, and the more the better.