No, they haven't hurt at all. I see your points, but they haven't hurt the build. Look at the cards, Only the titan, the ragers and the Vicious Hunger are the only 2 mana requirement. I suppose you could go 9 swamp, 7 mountain and it would more than assure you getting those lands, but the thing is, I haven't had a single mana issue with this deck. Staying power if the initial onslaught fails is the only problem that I wish you guys could think of ways to help with.
Many players blanch at lifegain. They even have a blind spot to it and fail to see what it brings to the table. Right now, this is the only thing building time if the initial onslaught fails.
Defense and Lifegain, both of these concepts are largely ignored by a lot of players. You want an edge over a lot of others? Work on understanding these 2 better. I'm not preaching about it to you from all high, but saying it's an advantage, and aren't we all looking for that edge?
1. You'll play against them better
2. You'll be able to adapt some of the concepts into aggro
3. Your aggro will have staying power
4. You'll then be able to adapt aggro into your control better
Last version, I built a defensive elf deck opposed to the aggro one. (this is just one example of many I can give). In a mirror match vs the aggro one, I built up lifegain and defense to the point I was shrugging off, and I'm not exaggerating, 85 hp strikes to my hp. In the meantime, I had room to wait it out, taking shots when I could, and eventually winning.
The reason I understand and laud defense so well is I've studied Military strategy and history since I was 7, and I'm 43 now. The straightforward frontal assault vs a dug in defense is mass suicide. Even if you win the battle, you lose the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory and the Alamo are just 2 examples of that. Look at the incredibly sad and stupid frontal assaults on trenches in WW1. (I've read over 200 books on WW1) Dug in troops with machine gun nests and millions died just rushing forward straight into it. Victories were measured in a few yards gained at the cost of multi thousands.
The best way to know good war philosophy is to read the The Art of War by Sun-Tzu, translated into english of course.