Sometimes there needs to be a hard break to what you're used to if it is simply a better interaction model. Firefox's smart bar is a definite improvement, although it takes adjusting to (like the Office 2007 ribbon, and the Vista start menu)

Not all of us want feature creep, and if we're doing something a crappy way, then I don't mind if I sometimes get dragged kicking and screaming to a better model. I eventually got used to opening my browser windows in tabs instead of new windows. I got used to Gmail compared to Eudora. It's hard to satisfy everyone, and if you can satisfy a lot more people with a hard change that upsets a few people, sometimes it is better.

I don't think the points you made are prerequisites for good UI design.