TentacleMayor: Relying on RNGsus is already controversial for strategy games, but not knowing your odds makes it that much worse.
On one hand I have no problem with randomness and even find it necessary, otoh I understand your concerns about the absence of odds. Moreover during exfiltration one doesn't see whether intelligence, strength or possibly just pure luck will be used. For example, sometimes you encounter security cameras, and have the choice to either try to hack them, which I suppose is a test against the intelligence attribute, or try to go through unnoticed, which I have difficulties considering a strength test. So I suppose there's some other luck attribute, or what ? That is unclear too.
However, in normal mode at least, after 2 or 3 games lost learning the basics (armageddon reached), the game doesn't seem very difficult and I've won all my subsequent games (considering I choose my country, spouse and agents randomly). And while the odds aren't clearly shown, it's rather clear what improves them in our favour. I suppose that not showing all that info is intentional because it would feel less RP, but it clearly has its drawbacks since it makes the game rules unclear. There's another possibility though, the non-cheating AI is too weak, which is somehow compensated by hiding some info to the human player.
That being said, I didn't try the last update with the addition of Nigeria. Maybe it has been updated in that respect too...