First of all... the Finder's always been an application. 
About point 3... I think I see what you're saying. You'd like to be able to see everything at one-half the size so you have more space, even if you can't read anything at that size. That's an interesting idea, but know that Windows has had virtual resolutions for a while. The only difference is you have to scroll around to see anything not shown in your screen's resolution; you effectively have a window to the larger picture, much like zooming in on OS X.
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System:
• 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 200 GB hard drive, runs 10.5.6
• 1.6 GHz iMac G5, 1.5 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, runs 10.4.11 (slightly out of commission at this time)
• iPhone, 4 GB, OS X 2.2.1 |