Much improved. Will there be a legend that defines what the different mountains/hills/other are? I'm still not keen on what I assume are mountains and hills as they are a bit too "blobby" if that makes sense, but I'm hard pressed to think of a better way to do them.

Check that. What if you colored the "land layer" in those areas with the colors you are using and then used a displacement to make them "pop" up? That would give you a better transition of color into those areas and still give you the shading that would provide height.