What's up with these things in CS5?

Question

Since upgrading to Photoshop CS5, I'm coming across a number of things that don't work like they worked.....I'll even go as far as to say "as well as they worked," in previous versions, and I'm wondering if these are bugs, functionality changes, errors, or something else that I'm somehow missing....like a preference that I could turn on or off. I'll list them below. Any feedback from Adobe or otherwise greatly appreciated.
1. When using the type tool, it used to show up with a box around it, then when it was hovering over existing text, the box would go away, and it would just be the type tool up and down line with its little serif things...that way I could tell when I was going to click into an existing type layer or whether clicking was going to generate a new layer. Now however, the bounding box never appears, so I don't know if I'm going to be clicking to select an existing layer or create a new layer? Bug or by design?
2. When I have a vector layer selected, and that vector path preview thing is showing around the object to show me that my vector object is indeed selected, then I select one of the layer effects on that layer to edit, I used to be able to hit Apple+H to hide the vector path outline thing while the layer effects window was open....now when I hit Apple+H, the "View" menu icon flashes but nothing happens. Bug?
3. This is a really weird specific one that I will be amazed if I am not the only weirdo encountering....in other words, I'll be amazed if someone else has come across this same thing. I like to create layer actions for all kinds of things. One of the things is creating a layer action to duplicate the current layer. In previous versions of Photoshop, I could click a little box next to the "Duplicate Current Layer" command in the actions panel, and that would force a little dialogue to come up whenever that action got triggered....the dialogue being the layer name dialogue....before the action would complete. This was handy because when I called up that action, it would duplicate the current layer while providing me with a handy dialogue at the same time to name that new layer. This is no longer an option in CS5 because that little dialogue no longer shows up next to the "Duplicate Current Layer" command. WTF!?
4. I'm sure this is a by design feature, and maybe I'm the only one that finds this incredibly annoying... I used to be able to be working in full screen mode, then open another file, and have that new file not open in full screen mode. This was handy if say I was working in full screen mode, and opened another file because there was something in that file that I wanted to drag into the file I was already working in.. Nope! Now if I'm working in full screen mode, everything else that I open then opens in full screen mode... Do I just have a bassackwards way of working, or does this throw anyone else off as well? Maybe I'm just weird, but I really enjoyed being able to work with a bunch of documents in different screen modes... Could this one be a preference that I can turn off somewhere?
5. Again, this may be something where I'm the only person in the world that used this feature. If I had say the direct-selection arrow tool selected, and I wanted to select a different layer, I used to be able to do this handy shortcut/combination of keys to select that new layer...I would hold down Control Option Command, and click, and the layer I clicked on would be auto-selected. Brilliant! Now, doing that key combination and clicking brings up a weird color-picker thing that I don't understand, and that I probably have to read some documentation to figure out what it even is. This one seems to be by design, but annoying when a keyboard shortcut that is practically stored as a grove in my brain now does something else. I literally need to change the physical form of my brain before I will stop trying to make that shorcut work! It just doesn't work. As many times as I might try it and hope that the Photoshop Elves have changed it back to what it used to do, it's fate seems to be sealed in a new direction... Unless...?
These things frustrate me every time I use Photoshop, and I really hate to be frustrated by Photoshop!!! I wish we could just be friends like we used to when a new release was amazing, like "Wow, this new version of Photoshop has LAYERS! Amazing!" or, "Wow, Photoshop now has a thing called History! Incredible!" Those were the days! Now I sometimes feel like things just change from one release to the next...like Photoshop hit a peak at a certain point, and...I know it sounds harsh...but now they just keep finding reasons to create new versions that are no longer about creating a better application, but more about making money. Can't we all just go back to CS4!!?? Ah OK, I'll stop ranting...
Save me...show me the light! Enlighten me! What has my life come to? Surely there's better things to worry about!
Elliott

Answer 1

ad 3) Try recording command-alt-J instead of command-J, that should provide the »Toggle dialog on/off«-field in the Actions Panel.
ad 4) I think that has been changed since CS4 at least.
I also preferred the old behaviour, but I doubt it will be re-introduced anytime soon.
ad 5) I seldom use those combinations, but with the Direct Selection Tool doesn’t command-clicking suffice?