It borders on the line of maximal instead of minimal because it integrates into a greater interface instead of creating a fresh screen. I like that, I think it would be important to organize in some strong ways, like several "Visions" or "Aspects" (simply tabs) that could have thematic views on e-mail. What if I want to leave an e-mail unread but don't want it sitting on the desktop? I think that it's a nice idea but there should be preference for notes to myself rather than messages from others, so maybe you can add some fields for "notes to self" that could sit between e-mails, and e-mails could be grayed out until I mouse over them. Those are the kinds of features I personally would love to have.