Well icons is the only thing we've seen so I can't really comment on whether icons make the UI in this case.

But like I said, I think I had reason to believe we'd be moving away from widget filled desktops and iconlists of apps. These are not the entire UI, but I do feel it tells us something about the way the UI functions overall. In WP7 they thought of something new in place of this two-part UI (desktop & icon list). I thought this was going to be something radically different. Maybe I just took Ahtisaari too seriously. :F