Recommendations for interface problems in ical and mail?

Question

Generally my impressions of 10.7 are positive... the full screen views are great and navigating among screens is super easy.  It makes the screen on my 11" MacBook Air feel much larger.
But there are two major steps backwards in the two apps I use most: mail.app and iCal.
mail.app 5.0 - In mail.app 4.0 when a thread was selected, the /closed/ thread items would appear in the message browser.  In mail.app 5.0, it is only possible to "preview" the a thread if you click on the small number adjacent to the thread in the preview pane.  This previews the content of the thread, but does not mark the messages as "unread". 
However, if you miss that little number icon (and accidentally click on the thread itself) the messages open in the message pane and they are marked as "read" automatically.  So, this means that if I delete a message above a thread that contains unread messages, that thread becomes selected immediately and the messages are marked as "read" (even though I did not read them). 
This makes it almost impossible for me to prioritize my email, I miss important emails because they're marked as "read", and I'm constantly hitting command+shift+U as I gingerly navigate my inbox. 
iCal 5.0 - in iCal 4.0 there was a left pane that allowed users to select calendars /and/ see a simple "month preview".  These were two very useful features, which allowed me to turn on and off calendars with a single click and see how upcoming weeks/months looked.  In ical 5.0 there is no simple month view option (nor can one see two or more months simultaneously except in the cluttered "year" view). 
Am I missing some buried setting that will return the 4.0 features I'm missing?  Are there any suggestions (other than switching to other software) that folks can recommend?

Answer 1

I completely agree. The conversations view in Lion Mail is pretty confusing and the whole read vs unread thing doesn't really work well. And the Unread smart mailbox doesnt update in real time anymore. But the bigger issue is iCal, which in my opinion is a total disaster. I am really shocked and angry at how bad iCal and the Address Book are. These are crucial apps and Apple has just thrown us a steaming pile. After all these years these apps should be beautiful shining examples of great software.