So I went with full 7, and have finally almost finished setting things up how I'd like: got quick launch, got rid of navigation pane and library tool bar and all that shit, set up WMP to always be on playlist and visualization pane (jesus, the library window is fucking persistent). Goddamn upward curve there....
The only apparently insurmountable element is disabling 'align to grid', meaning I can't move my files around within Explorer folders to wherever I want. You still can on the desktop.... You can disable auto-arrange, but I want that because it lines 'em up for ya. So, that's Gay.
Also haven't tried networking, I often move files to and from my main rig, but that isn't critical.