I haven't ordered Panther, but I plan to get it at some point. From what (little) I've used of it, it's quite awesome, much better than 10.2, and even the brushed metal interface is not so bad considering all that you're doing with it.
Besides, I like being able to drag on any edge of the window instead of being limited to the menu bar. That's one of the (many) things I think OS X has been lacking from 9, up until now. Perhaps that's (one of the reasons) why Apple's putting BM in everywhere.