I have a patch that I want in, and I put a lot of work into this. I don't want to take a step back NOW and start arguing this part of it again, we've been over this road over and over and over again, and what we end up with is a lot of talk and no code.
Earl, your patch is an improvement and will be committed. If someone stands up to refine it, that's cool too.
agreed, I am a believer of gradual improvements so let's work on http://drupal.org/node/72079. There is no time to do a big-time interaction design overhaul for a code freeze. Let's take these ideas from this thread forward in separate threads/issues. Liking the proposal of 'new stuff you can do' boxes on module enabling. Can be combined with Basecamp-style contextual hints 'stuff you have not done yet'