I hear ya. I whined and moaned about certain aspects of 4.2 that I believe are problematic. But in fairness to you and other folks, I must admit that I didn't give some of the new features a fair shake.

So, on the advice of others here on the forum, I've loaded the BB Dimension Zen theme, which does indeed display ALL the icons for ALL the applications. And with this theme, I can loaded any photograph for the background, which does offer much greater flexibility for color contrasting, readability, etc.
I also like the colors utilized in the message screens while sorting emails, etc. Easier to differentiate things...

Some other observations:
1. With the BB Dimension Zen theme, the battery level indicator now shows full when it should show full (unlike the Verizon theme I mentioned in my previous post).

2. Also with the Zen theme, the main homepage displays icons and status for each messaging account, plus one applications icon, which takes you to the main applications screen, where ALL the icons now reside (like 4.1). Simple, clean display of just the important stuff.

2. The device is still sluggish. The new 4.2 OS puts a hurtin' on the ol' 8703e.

3. A few of the 4.1 ringtones, alarm tones and notifier tones are gone, including the tone I had been using for email alerts, etc. These have been replaced by some new tones. I had to go through all my Profiles settings and redo the tones. (I wish there was a "universal" tone feature)

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I feel better about 4.2 now, and I'm dealing with the changes. At this juncture, I'm leaning towards keeping 4.2. Besides, I'll be upgrading to a new device sometime in the not-too-distant future. I'm just waiting for the "right" new device to be released (probably next Spring).

z