I've been working for the past few months with CiviCRM and despite the differences which came as a bit of a culture-shock to me, I've cobbled together a few ideas for things that perhaps could be considered for future versions.
Please bear in mind that these are simply things that I have had to add myself for a live contract and in no way reflects poorly on the CiviCRM system as it stands. On the contrary, I think the fundamental aspects of CiviCRM offer an easy way to add crm functionality to your site.