It's not what older versions did either, they sorted by address. I don't think date of creation has any meaning regarding addresses, if an address has never been in the block chain, it's just a number no different than another. Maybe the client could display which addresses have been used and which weren't. Then again, labeling can be used for that.
EDIT: I also like the fact that the label appears when you enter an address on the Send page so that you are informed about its previous usage, and you can enter a label directly if there isn't one. So it's a very straightforward and minimally time consuming process.
Transactions screen is still there. Do you mean they should be pop-up's instead of tabs? IMO fewer pop-ups is better. I don't like the splash screen and balloons either.
It seems that everyone agrees on this one. If we really don't want to display numbers, maybe a 1-6 dial could be made.