G'day John,
up to a point you're probably right - the best thing is what I'm used to (E.G. I REALLY hate the Office 2k7 "ribbon"), but I get most irritated when I have to hack the registry to make changes that I used to be able to do from control panel applets.

Case in point - how do you change your default MIDI synth in vista/Win7? Can't use the control panel applet (MIDI Mapper) 'cos it ain't there. You HAVE to hack the registry directly (there are some 3rd party tools these days) just because m$ decided they didn't want you to change your synth - stoooopid! In fact the whole audio subsystem has been hacked around so much I'm surprised it works at all. In an attempt to improve efficiency but maintain backward compatibility they have actually made things worse - and that *DAMN* volume control applet... I prefer device based management NOT application based.

Other changes to network interface and protocol management - it is now extremely difficult to manage the NIC's and protocol stack(s) in comparison to the old way. Extra levels to navigate through and no logic to it.

The aero UI uses sooo much CPU power and other resources that you can noticeably improve your systems performance just by turning it off - how dopey is that? Why create a UI that is significantly less efficient for a little bit of eye candy that most people don't really care about anyhow?

If i'd wanted a Mac I'da bought a Mac. I do NOT want my windows box to try to be a Mac. I especially don't want to be as divorced from the ability to manage the box as a Mac makes me.

Some 6 or 8 years ago m$ bailed Apple out with a $300 Million infusion of funds - the joke around the traps was that m$ didn't want to lose their R&D department - not so funny now that the vista/Win7 UI is the result...
/rant

--=-- My credo: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing - just ask my missus, she'll tell ya laugh --=--
You're only paranoid if you're wrong!