No one is forced to use anything. Two companies offer a ~primary~ (ignoring Kubuntu, Xubuntu et al and you can get KDE etc. on Fedora as well) desktop experience. You take it or leave it. For some the difference is that one offers something created in-house while the others offer something created in public.

Fedora 15 has a classic mode. I'm not sure about 16, but I'd expect the same.

You could replace the sentence about Gnome with one putting Canonical/Ubuntu as a subject and it would be just as misplaced and just as (..) correct.

You are really the first guy (no kidding) that I heard describing the spinning cube as a worthy feature. I don't understand your usecase, but you have to agree that you're in a minority here, no?