You're kind of late to the party.I use Spaces in my Snow Leopard computer since, minimizing windows sucks on OS X,
Send a request to Apple: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
I don't like it either but I've managed to curtail my workflow to fit in only 4 desktops using MC. (Anything more makes it useless for me on a 13" display). I also never use Full Screen Apps which SL never had anyway. Also, with ML Apple eventually allowed us not to "group" our windows in Expose' - I think we were lucky to at least get that.
Combine these "compromises" with 3rd party innovations like BetterTouchTool and ML is tolerable. Not perfect, but tolerable.