David,
Thanks for the review. I think that with the exception of focus peaking (a big exception, I know), the Nex menus and interface have been basically the same since late last year or very early this year, whenever version 3 of the firmware came out. So those of us who were singing the praises (relatively) of the Nex 5 were dealing with largely the same interface as you're dealing with now - hence our enthusiasm. I have to say that I tend to stay in Aperture priority about 90% of the time, so having to push a button to access the mode dial was never an issue for me, and if you changes modes a lot, I can see that it would be.
One question - you still seem to be burdened by the menus to some degree - have you customized the buttons as the firmware allows you to do? I found that once I'd done that, I VERY rarely needed to go into the menu at all while shooting. One button push would get me to the feature I wanted to adjust and the control ring/wheel would then make the changes I wanted.
I only used one manual lens with the Nex (a Voigtlander 50 f1.5) and that was before focus peaking was added to the firmware, so I never experienced that, but I was still able to focus manually pretty well using the rear screen.
I'm glad you like the 3C and hope the Nex 7 answers the rest of your hopes and wants. Once Olympus raised its game with its new bodies and lenses, I sold my Nex (and my GH2) and have largely re-committed to m43 with an EP3 (and will be checking out an EPL3 as well). I'll definitely keep and will keep shooting with my X100 and GRD3 for something completely different, but for a system, m43 has won me back from Nex, largely due to lens size questions. The 24 f1.8 looks like its going to be pretty large and I don't see any real quality lenses for that system being smaller. Hence, m43 is just more in line with my wants and needs. And, as we've discussed, that last percent or so of IQ excellence just isn't very far up my list of priorities (and the X100 will meet it when I want it).
Thanks for posting this - I found it interesting, almost as much for your changed attitude toward the Nex as for the camera itself, which I don't believe is different from the Nex 5 except for the sensor....
-Ray