The somewhat vague dialogue options were there in ME1. However, in my experience it's fairly rare for the option you select to not reflect what is being said. Also, as someone else already stated, most of the time it's Upper Right = Paragon, Lower Right = Renegade (unless you're doing the Investigate).
As for the slightly edgier Paragon options in this game, I liked them. I tend to play good guys and it was really nice not to be a total pussy this time around. What people fail to understand is that Paragon isn't about being polite, it's about not compromising yourself and other people to get results and the ends do NOT justify the means. ME2 communicates that better.
What DOES irk me a bit is that some actions are deemed Renegade, when they are just cool. For instance, shooting the gas tanks during Mordin's Loyalty mission to shut the blabbering Krogan. That was just plain awesome, and you'd just end up killing him anyway. Same thing with killing the Gunship engineer during the Archangel mission. However, I don't cry and moan if I get a few Renegade points along the way, so it's all good.