TouchFlo3D - making your smartphone less usable?

Today I switched of TouchFlo3D on my HTC Touch HD.

It was accompanied by a great sense of freedom.  Suddenly I did not have to fit my habits to HTC’s vision.  I suddenly had a vista of 1000’s of Today screen plug-ins I could choose from, and even combine them, something that is just not possible with TouchFlo3D.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love TouchFlo3D.  It has huge bragging power, it is much more slick and pretty than even the iPhone interface, it makes great use of today’s high resolution screens and does surface functionality like picture viewing and music very well. However over the last few weeks of using the HTC Touch HD I was noticing an increasing move towards using the tools built into the native Windows Mobile interface, which, to an expert user, actually has greater usability. 

I found placing my most used applications in the start menu meant I could access them much faster than going to the programs tab. Placing a shortcut to the camera app in the start menu especially sped up using the software, from the previous Home>Careful Swipe>Tap to a quick Start>Camera movement.

I found activating notifications for incoming text messages and e-mail (off by default on the HD) meant I could actually see and read my e-mail as it come in, rather than only going to scan it every once in a while via TF3D.

I also found I was going to the programs page much faster than the programs tab on TF3D, especially because finger scrolling works so well on the HD. 

Now that I have de-activated TF3D I have the choice of what Today plug-in to use to replace it.  The large WVGA today screen will mean I can fit plenty in there, and I have no doubt the interface I create will be more useful to me.

What do our readers think?  Do we lose more than we gain by using TouchFlo3D?  Let us know in the comments.