Live Tiles serve the same purpose as Badges and Widgets. All Microsoft did was consolidate the two into one entity. They do not replace a decent notification system, nor do they compose a decent notification system. Just because you implement a Global Notification Cache and Notification Center, you don't have to get rid of Live Tiles and Tile Badges...
It has nothing to do with tweaking. As far as the start screen is concerned, implementing Folders would probably be enough for most users (if they open to half-sized tiles, for example). As far as Notifications go, Live Tiles just don't cut it - period. They never have, and they pretty much never will. Flip Tiles are cool. People like looking at them, and I like showing them to people, but it's a colossal waste of time staring at your phone waiting for those to flip to see what may be on the other side. It's not practical. Microsoft should have known that, especially once you have a non-trivial amount of tiles pinned to your screen.
The WP7 Start Screen is like a Vertically scrolling Android Home screen with Square Icons with integrated Badges and Widgets.
Examples:
1. Facebook for WP app supports Push Notifications for 10 Event Types. If you see a 3 on your Facebook Tile, cause you missed the Toasts. How do you know it's not just 3 people Liking a post, as opposed to an enraged customer or important private message?
2. How do you know the 2 on your Email Tile isn't just for Subscription emails from eBay or Amazon.com?
3. How do you know what the number on your Messaging hub is for? Is it an IM? An SMS? Who is it from? There's no preview?
4. Unless you barely do anything on Twitter and Facebook (and LinkedIn), the Me Hub's Live Tile is virtually useless. It only gives a snippet of 1 Notification, and ONLY if you ONLY have ONE notification. Otherwise, it will just say "# New Items." That's basically a badge in a Phrase. Mind as well just put a number there so I don't have to wait for it to flip, right?
5. There is no Alert for Marketplace Updates, and it's only a Badge. Unless that's pinned high up on your Start Screen (seriously?) you won't know unless you scroll down. There isn't an option to automatically update applications, so we're basically forced to check that at least occasionally.
6. Phone Tile: Who called? What Time? Who Left a Voicemail? What Time? Was that just the same person calling me over and over, or different people?
7. Finally - The Current system forces you to pin an inordinate amount of applications to your start screen, which - frankly - sucks. I can go down to 1 blank home screen on Android and still get all of my Push Notifications and view them. On WP7 85% of the time if that app is not pinned, you're SoL.
You know what the end result of that is? It's going into all of those and checking "Notifications" in every app with a badge because either you missed the Toast Notification or that app (like Marketplace/Email/Me Hub Live Tile) doesn't give you a Toast Notification at all). No Previews, anywhere...
There is absolutely no way to triage several notifications.
I get it. Some people are less busy, so that is less of an issue for others than it may be for me or people who may share any of my views on the matter. But it's a serious usability issue that completely contradicts their marketing. Windows Phone 7 was supposed to give us more information at a glance and save us from our phone. It makes me use my phone even more, becuase it takes me 5x as long to triage Notifications on my HD7 than it does on my Vibrant or iTouch - almost entirely due to the lack of a Global Notification Cache, Notification Center, and inconsistent implementation of Toast Notifications across even Stock OS functions.
No, I don't think it's cool that I have to background an app that may or may not have factorable resume times just because I got an email, when I could pull down the Notification bar on my other devices, see that it's just an ebay newsletter, and instantly go back to what I am doing. It completely destroys workflow, and it's not something I can just "get used to." I boxed up my Vibant Thursday and tried to use the HD7 full time. I couldn't do it. I like using the device, but the lack of a decent notification system (and the slow push notifications esp for third party apps) just kills the experience for me.
Also, WP7 was released over a year ago. So "the platform isn't even a year old yet" is incorrect, and doesn't cut it anymore. They should have added this in NoDo. It's more important than the barebones Twitter and LinkedIn INtegration, and Flip Tiles, IMO.