I agree with you. I mostly mean that the form of the standard may need to be assertive in some areas, for example as the current indicator area does by not providing the applications tooltips.
Yes, this makes plenty of sense. For one thing, as I mentioned, the taskbar should not allow buttons or any other widgets on the button itself. In addition, rightclick and leftclick actions should be consistent--maybe only allow menu options for a right click and allow more flexibility on the left click/hover.