How to disable Top sites icon in Favorites bar?

Question

I have upgraded to Mavericks and there are two issues that make me regret the move.  The first is small sounding but it makes me so angry I can't see straigh.  In a Google sort of way, the new version of Safari foists upon me that miserable button - the top sites icon - as if to say "haa haa ... we know what is good for you".  I want it gone!  It used to be an option you could uncheck in the preferences ... but unless I'm missing something (I sure hope so!) Apple decided we should not have the option.  Please tell me there is some way to get rid of the icon ... and better yet to disable somehow the whole top sites thing.  I despise it, and I despise that someone tells me what I must have and how to work.
The second thing is the bookmark sidebar.  I've always like how it works in safari.  Now for some reason, as oposed to before, when you have the side bar slide into place so that you can select the bookmark - it stays there!  Why?  I want it to disapear after I click on a bookmark as it always has.  I don't want to click again each time to make it go away.  Is there a way to bring back the old behavior?  This was in the beta of mavericks and I was not going to upgrade over the "feature".  In the demo however I caught that a presenter clicked ... and the bar slid away, the way I would like it to.  Now that I have mavericks ... it does not  work as in the demo on stage.
So ... anyone ... is there a way for me to fix these two irritations?
I'm going to wait a month or so to see how Mavericks direction develops.  I've always disliked Chrome because I don't trust they security and their proclivity towards tracking.  I haven't cared for Firefox much neither ... mostly due to the way they render fonts.  I will not use Safari if I can't change both of these features ... so I guess (because I suspect it is a case where apple knows what is good for me) that I won't be able to set up safari to not annoy me ... so my last questions is a recomendation for a replacement browser.  What are your favorite browsers aside from Safari?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Well after a few more days with Mavericks I have to say I'm fairly impressed with it.  Both laptops seem to have better battery life, and ... is it my imagination ... but they seem faster too?  Not bad.
On the Safari problem I have, so far, made no headway, so I would be grateful for anyone who can come up with an answer.  Perhaps  the drawer sliding out and then back after you click your bookmark has a command line solution?  I wonder how to investigate that?
As slick as Safari is (It has long been my favorite browser) I've been looking for a replacement.  I won't consider Crome because of the afforementioned Google practice of monetizing "us' and our data.  I don't  trust em!
I dowloaded Opera ... and found that they have the same ideas in spades, about Top sites, that Apple seems to be adopting. What a shame ... and a no-go.
Then I started a trial with iCab.  Now that is one nice browser!  First impression are very possitive but there is the same top sites icon sitting there, with no obvious way to zap it.  WHAT is going on ... does everyone havet to jump on the same (often hated) feature? I sent an email to the developer, expecting little but hoping just a bit anyways.  Guess what?  About forty five minutes later I received a reply.  Wow, now that is nice!
My first impressions of iCab are very positive.  I, however have the
same problem.  There is a top sites right in the favorites bar.  Can
this be disabled?  I have not yet found a way to do this.
You can turn off this icon in iCab. Please enter "settings:" (without the
quote characters, but including the colon) in the URL field and hit the
"return" key. This will open some additional settings where you can configure
some more stuff. In the section "favorites toolbar" there's a setting to
show or hide the TopTen icon in the favorites toolbar. Just switch this
option off and click on the "Save Settings" button.
Alexander Clauss
..... So problem avoided.  I'm going to spend the twenty dollars to register iCab even  though one does not really need to.  With responsiveness like this ... well, I want to keep it. 
So that is my progress up until now.  Not much on the original quest ... if you count nothing+hope as merely "not much".  Still hoping.  But having choices such as iCab and probably others ... sure did make me less grumpy.
I know I should perhaps just chill out. Life would sure be a bit easier if I had it in me to not care about these little details, I know.  Having it perfect, perfectly elegant and perfectly customizable - that's tough. 
On the other hand.  This is Apple. Isn't it?
Cheers!