Indeed.

I won't comment on active covers. Never used them. Too confusing. If anything, buttons feel more intuitive and less confusing ("hang on, was it left or right swipe to do X? ahh, it's buttons now, that makes it much clearer") but I guess to each his own.

Events view is just as accessible as ever. The only difference is that it is a horizontal swipe instead of vertical. The extra benefit is that the launcher is now also accessible all the time.

Unlike you, I love the context dependent volume buttons. Regulating the ringtone volume is now so much easier. I use that about 3x more frequently than using them for media volume so I find it very useful. To regulate media volume, all you need to do is switch back to the media playing app and hey presto! My only objection is that the browser is also considered a media playing app. There were a dozen occasions I wanted to change the ringtone volume when the browser was the active app and it changed the wrong one. Luckily, it tells you that.

I agree on the killed apps' covers. Killed should mean killed. If they insist on keeping the covers, they should make it clear that they are killed. The current method is too subtle. A big skull and cross bones over the cover or turn the cover to faded grey scale. And for heavens' sake, save the killed app's status!

Another thing you did not mention is the pulley menus. The old grafics were much better.

Lastly, swipe from the top to lock the screen is now two steps. Not the end of the world but still not as good as it used to be. It seems like they are really trying to push their "multiple ambiences" idea but honestly, do people really use them?