The tasklist in gnome1 used to have the ability to show only iconized
windows, which (to me) was the major feature over say, the windows taskbar.
This has been removed (it seems) and thus making it as useless as the 
windows taskbar.
I have been told it was because of usability revamping and I have to admit
if removing features to limit them to the set of features alternative
applications have, then clearly why would I have preferred the gnome
platform to begin with ?
If it's not that then I would really like to know why useful features
dissapeared.

The main reason for having this feature is that some users can fit a lot of
windows on one screen, and having them all both in front of you and in a
list is a bit pointless. Whereas iconized windows you can only see in a
tasklist. Ideally of course I could also have the option to list only
iconized windows AND windows that are absolutely and completely hidden
(behind other windows for example) and then it would be a killer app.

Another problem is that when my apps are grouped, they share an icon that
is a blank file, while the grouped apps (if i click on the icon) have the
correct icon (like, galeon, xterm etc...)