The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Even if the animation was instant, these actions would still take more time, because:
1) there are multiple separate actions instead of one action
2) the second action depends on the results that computer will show me only after the first action is done

Imagine typing on a keyboard where the layout of the keys might change after each keypress - you can't type blindly anymore or trust your fingers to press keys in rapid succession - you'll need to check each time if the key you were aiming for is still there

A lot of people seem to like side bars and application launchers. How about this compromise - create an optional bar on the left side of the screen that would contain application launchers and already started applications (just like the left side of the Activities menu, but: make it be just the with of an icon, make it an always visible panel, make favourite applications always stay on the top side of the bar in user-specified order, make clicking on this sidebar icons instantly execute launch/switch actions without starting the Activities overlay, make the sidebar discoverable by making it morph into the left side of Activities screen during Activities 'show' animation.