Like I said, I haven't done as much work yet (I bought the Air right before a vacation, so most of my use has been casual). Still, I've got one thing going for me: I'm very quick at picking up new keyboard shortcuts and habits. I'm a vim user, and every few weeks I switch around some shortcut to make things easier for myself - and it usually only takes a day to adjust. I don't know if this is abnormal or not, but a lot of people really complain very loudly every time shortcuts are changed on them, so maybe I'm the odd one out here.
Also, I work hard at fixing big incoviences. For example, I can't stand the way maximize works on the Mac... but it doesn't matter, since I have a program that makes it work like in Windows. The trick is to give the new behaviour a fair shot before "fixing" it, since sometimes the new behaviour is better - for example, using command+tab (alt-tab in windows) only work between different applications, and having a separate shortcut for switching Windows in the same application - that's much better than in Windows, but at first I really hated it.
My biggest gripe with OSX right now, by the way, is the Finder. On Windows I used Total Commander, which is very easily one of the top ten colossal wins for me on Windows. on OSX, I don't have anything comparable, which is a big problem. But I'm working on that one too :)
Shift+click the "plus" button and it'll maximize. I've been using BetterTouchTool's window movement abilities to set hotkeys to maximize and halve windows. It'll also do an aero-snap-esque thingy. Pretty useful
Cmd+tab is pretty nice, keep in mind you can use Cmd+` to switch between windows of the current application. It's a bit different than the way Windows does it, but once you use it for a little bit you get used to it and Windows feels a bit awkward ;)
If you're looking for better maximize/window management, check out the open source app ShiftIt. Works sort of like aero snap in windows 7, with a quick keystroke to fully maximize a window. I use it all the time.
100% agree about giving the default Mac configuration a chance. Often it's better thought out (or actually thought-out at all) and will work better if you learn the "mac way" to do things. Except the window maximizing—that's really an inexcusable shortcoming of the OS IMHO.
Also, I work hard at fixing big incoviences. For example, I can't stand the way maximize works on the Mac... but it doesn't matter, since I have a program that makes it work like in Windows. The trick is to give the new behaviour a fair shot before "fixing" it, since sometimes the new behaviour is better - for example, using command+tab (alt-tab in windows) only work between different applications, and having a separate shortcut for switching Windows in the same application - that's much better than in Windows, but at first I really hated it.
My biggest gripe with OSX right now, by the way, is the Finder. On Windows I used Total Commander, which is very easily one of the top ten colossal wins for me on Windows. on OSX, I don't have anything comparable, which is a big problem. But I'm working on that one too :)