With transparent tiles you can set a background that stands behind your tiles, it's just more customizable. Anyway the things that I miss the most from Windows phone 8 are
- Facebook integration (to receive Facebook messages as normal SMS, I know about Facebook messenger but it's bloody hell to slow)
- Old music + video hub (even though I enjoy the new Xbox music, it's not as bad as they say, I would prefer an option to set a background when listening to music, I just don't need to download my songs from Xbox, I already have those)
- Photos hub, was much more cooler.
And that's all I can think, but I can live off without those features and enjoy the new ones