Again, I think one big portion of Inbox is to push the paradigm GMail started years back to NOT DELETE ANYTHING. Check Mark = Archive, which is how GMail wants you to address emails you're done with anyway. I'm a deleter too, but I'm trying to commit and give Inbox a try the way it's meant to be used. If I don't like it by the end of November, I'll switch back to GMail (which I'm now using for Exchange and wish there was an easier way to switch between inboxes/accounts).

As for the use of screen real estate, the flashy elements are going to take away from that some... though I have my tabs/filters setup well enough that I rarely have more than 2 or 3 messages in my Primary inbox at any given time.