1 you can have something writted over the icons if you want: go to shelf editor push the buttonname yo want to edit and write whetever you please...

2 the buttons are just a mel that calls a menu function, if you want a list of functions forget the shelfs buttons and the hotbar, just have the menus you want floating...
ie youll be polymodeling: just push the edit poligon menu and then push the two bars on top of the menu an it will stay floating over everything else

Also i have a custom modded cherry coghdrop made to look right(and believeme, its hard to make a skin thats fully red and doesnt looks pink when unactive and still isnt too dark when active...), if you want a crappy interface then maybe you should have bought win2000. Personally I dont notice performance going down because of the skins... (programs messing with the registry DO real harm to performance)