My usage of tiling window managers is quite different from what you describe. For the most part, I only have two windows open. Sometimes I am actually using two applications concurrently. More often than not, the second window exists solely to make the window I'm working in narrower. I formed this habit long before floating window managers could snap windows to the edge of the screen and never felt the desire to move on. Besides, I find an inactive terminal far less distracting than a hole showing the desktop.