What did Peter Chou say the point of Sense was in 2010 - "With Sense, you can make it your own."
Back in Sense 1.0 I had launcher profiles and I could save my Rosie settings.
They keep saying that Sense is getting lighter-weight to make the blogosphere happy.
The only differences between Sense 3 and 4 was a shift of functions and eye candy from one place to another. LoL
PS - if everyone with a Discus account goes and thanks my question on the HTC page at the link above, maybe they'll take notice and we'll get a more complete answer - just saying, couldn't hurt.