Imo though there should be a frame work in place for each application in the tray to act more like indicators instead of pushing all indicators into one spot.
Like how in windows7 you can hover over an application in the tray to see progress, skip tracks, view tabs etc. I've got my fingers crossed that when unity dumps the old systray something like this will step in for the dock. However seeing as how push/drag out has been reserved for rearranging icons rather then long press or simply dragging with the panel grain; this is probably unlikely. :(