I must say a lot of the slick you may or may not like is quite functional as well. Aero-peek, alt-tab,dragging the windows to the side for side by side viewing and other neat features are fantastic. When I am writing a report for some bacteria I am investigating it is great to have my notes on one side and word on the other. If I have something pinned on the background such as a calender or clock, or even a newsfeed it is great to just go down to aero peek and take a quick look.
I spend most of my day doing half a dozen tasks in parallel. (I direct my company's System Admin department, and do a lot of detailed tech work myself as well.)
I typically have 10-12 windows open and visible, and have to refer to, or copy/paste between them, constantly. So I have three monitors running: a central 1600x1200, and a smaller 1280x1024 on each side. That almost gives me enough room to have the active windows all visible at one time.
When I have to work on my laptop away from my desk, my productivity drops tremendously, even with tricks like Aero, or OS-X's multi-desktop spaces. Those are slick, as you say, but they do not substitute for having everything spread out in front of me at once.