incredibly insightful analysis, i learned quite a bit! i'm always jealous of amazing UI, and i'm well aware that the beauty derives from simplicity and designing for intent/ action, which takes a great deal of time to achieve with customer development, and paring elements down in response.
i'm grateful to have you point out many choices i would have glossed over at first blush (perhaps several views, even).
your comments are definitely valuable, but one thing that might make these UI posts stand out even more would be to get comments from prospective users, as if doing customer interviews. i know such activities are beyond the scope of posts like this for multiple reasons, but if it could be done, it would be amazing to see what "regular" users think/ do in the context of your break-down.
(about me: i'm a startup co-founder who isn't a trained UXD but appreciates the importance of UI and UX. apologies for not providing insight at a much higher level.)