Thank you for this very nice and detailed feedback!
I am a happy GNOME Shell user too. I have only installed one extension:
Alternative Status Menu. Not only to get an easily accessed Shutdown entry
(like you mentioned) but mainly to have the option to hibernate. Indeed, here
is my setting: I have defined key-bindings for the ten first workspaces and
have 1) Emacs; 2) Evolution and Pidgin; 3) Liferea; 4) ABrowser; 5) GNOME
Terminal and 6) Exaile running (what occupy about 1 GB of RAM) on the six
first workspaces. I know by heart their key-bindings and I always suspend or
hibernate. I found this setting very efficient. Of course, the choice of
applications is mine and another user would certainly run other applications.
Here is an important link you forgot to mention. Anybody who wants to test
GNOME Shell should read the content it points to (or feel lost).
