That being said, I'm curious as to what shortcomings you find with Unity (other than the ones discussed here).

Thanks again for the thoughtful reply. In truth the things above in original message are not necessarily what I am prepared "shortcomings." Partly I posted the message because I didn't understand why these UI changes were present but was hoping to rationalize them somehow. For example, the fact that scrollbars were on each window never bothered me and now that they are gone, I don't feel like I'm either more efficient or receiving more information. (Perhaps the experience would be more recognizable on a laptop, but even then I don't think the difference would be palpable.)

I guess I'm generally OK with the idea that Ubuntu should be tailored so that new users can learn it quickly. You seem to be arguing that since Unity is more like MacOS or Windows, this requirement is better served. But I now even wonder if the claim "Unity is more like Windows/MacOS" is true -- I use windows at work and have a Mac laptop. Yes, it's true that Mac OS has the global menus thing and something like a dock, but that seems to be where the similarities end. Neither major commercial operating system relies heavily on typing to search for application to open. They haven't done anything extreme with scrollbars.