The whitepaper is pretty detailed. It's also very conservatively written, but I get the sense NEM/XEM has a grand ambition of positioning itself as another major Crypto 2.0 platform alongside Ethereum - am I reading too much into this or is that the case?
I'm not sure what you mean by conservative. I actually think it's quite the opposite with all the quotes in there

I mean it isn't filled with all the kind of extravant, unsubstantiated claims you find in most crypto whitepapers. It's academic, reserved and looks solid. I hope NEM has more to say about the use of the network as a platform for 2.0 applications.