Well if the players like it, then it must be well thought out. I mean, I know what you mean by not having too much clutter, but I think I was thinking more of a tactical mind than a DM mind. (You caught me on that)
As for the lighting, I love the use of colored lights. I really really do. But the more white you make them the more realistic they look. But that aside, the map seems alright. I am getting my new comp set up as I speak so I can try it out after I install my UT3. =)
As for being completely new: I really didn't expect that. Maybe you mentioned it before, but so far your stuff looks alright. As I read through your post, it seems that you don't make the mistake that many new mappers take. I think you take a step back and actually do some deep LOOKING into your map, which is a good thing to be able to do. Some people are blinded by what they think is quality and just release it, and that usually comes to bad maps. So really, nice job for your fist released map. God my first map was horrible so I won't bother to bring it up. Bon Voyage.