My main uses are writing software and reports, none of which creates 1,000's of files under the main folder. So I guess my gadget would not be appropriate for this use case.

> Not only does doing this prevent you from lazily dropping/saving files onto it

That's the thing, it's only considered "lazy" because it's faster but the files end up in a disorganized location. By pointing the desktop somewhere more useful, you get all the speed benefits without the disorganization downsides.

You do have to weight it against your love of your wallpaper, though.

You can just turn off desktop icons via the context menu. The files are still there, but you need to access them from a Explorer window.