[ricot]

I second this. Too dominant. Too distracting. -- And too black. ;-)

I have assigned keyboard shortcuts for my most used filters* so I can hide the the Filter Bar and access filters via keyboard. But, of course, that's a bit awkward.

* System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts

PS: I also don't like the new default Style preferences, but I love the fact that they can be changed back to the old (Helvetica) settings.