I dunno, I guess Aero just never really bothered me. I'm too busy using programs to pay it much attention, though.
I will tell you one thing for sure, though: Aero DOES consume system resources. In fact, on our HVAC Controls Front-End PCs that run Windows 7 we turn off ALL of the eye candy to improve the end-user experience from a speed standpoint. And there is a noticeable difference in identical hardware, one running Aero and one with Aero disabled, but we use a big huge registry hack that one of my engineers came up with to accomplish it.