Oh, I'd forgotten about this thread, I do vent quite a bit, do I not? That's what I love about this site, we can have a rant and then others weigh in, we chat, we reason with each other, we argue sometimes and usually a resolution is found, or a way to live with the original 'niggle' or compromise is found. I like that.
At present I'm on 10.4.4, I've no problems with Tiger now, I did use OnyX to disable the widgets, I still do that now and I've not tried them for months. But the end result is it feels just as peppy as my old Panther. Obviously the consistancy thing is still there, I think this is something we have to live with - come on Apple, 'lively up yourself!' as the man said.
I may re-enable the widgets to see what it looks/feels like now... then I can come back and have another moan..
