I solved that when I upgraded by going to a 19" flanked by two 17"s. It works beautifully. I have my editor on the 19", my documentation on the left 17" and my browser/console window (program output) on the right. I love it.
Same experience here. Two monitors are not the same as one large high-resolution monitor. I wish I had one of the latter as well.
One 30" is much better. As you said, the center becomes usable again. I would never go back to two screens, even if they offered more total space.