I hear you Adam.  I agree with the "more German" looks to some degree.  I have voiced my displeasure on this board about the dash layout of the 3-Series as well, which carries over to the 5-Series in many ways.  The cockpit of old always, ALWAYS had the driver side dash and center console wrap around the driver (tilt towards the driver) giving it a feel of a drivers car.  Not so in the new E90 and E92.  The dash looks long and flat all the way across.  A bit to Sedan(ish) for me.  
I have gotten use to it, but I don't care for it much.  But, the main gripe I have is EVERY BMW 3-Series has always had the window controls on the center console, but not so anymore.  To some degree the car (from the inside) seems more like a 5-Series would be.  With that said, this would not deter me from purchasing a 335i coupe or the new M3.  I would seriously have a hard time letting go of my E46 though.
I wished Mercedes would offer more of their coupe/sedans in manual gearbox's.  I do love many of the Mercedes model lines.  
P.S. In Defense of the 5-series headlight assembly, it is the Japanese who copied BMW therefore, creating the (I agree) Japanese/cheap looking headlight assembly.