Google Now’s latest update is… “In your face”

The only thing I want is to be able to choose the "main" desktop. Right now, this is reserved for the first desktop to the right of the Google Now page. So, when you press the home key, it takes you to that desktop.

Prior to installing the GEL, I had two desktops on either side of the primary one, but pressing home would take me to the center one. Now that Google Now took up residence to the left of the main desktop, I had to move the previous "left" desktops to the far right, which means two more swipes than before. The only reason I had to do this was because GEL thinks the primary desktop is the leftmost one after the Google Now page.

If they update it to allow choosing a primary desktop, the problem goes away.

All of these updates can be turned off ... that's part of the point of Google Now. You choose the categories of things you want to be notified of.