На претензии Линуса к GNOME3 доходчиво ответили по ссылке к новости:

The reason for the terminal button bringing up your existing terminal is that GNOME 3 switches between applications, not windows. If you already have a window open, that window will be shown. If you want a new window, you can right click and choose new window. If you aren't a heavy tab user, or the applications has no tabs, that's of course sub-optimal.

For Desktop icons, enable /org/gnome/desktop/background/show-desktop-icons in dconf (e.g. via dconf-editor) and add "nautilus -n" to your autostart list.

Expose functionality: Isn't that exactly what is happening if you go into activities?
Wobbly windows: Yes, not working, because the window manager is integrated with the shell.