That's just the nature of Operating System evolution. All of the application manufacturers will now be writing larger versions of their programs to take advantage of the new features in Win2000. Also, we found that there is a significant performance increase with processor speeds 500 MHz and above as compared to the older processors. Using the New install method gets rid of all of the old files and configurations left over from the older versions of Windows. Sure, it's a bit of a pain to re-install all of the application software however, it's worth it in the long run.
Applications run cleaner and faster.
One area that has really ticked us off is that the Microsoft has made the Tape Backup process quite complicated rather than simplifying it. This reminds me of the old IBM 4381 and 390 tape management days. BIG PAIN in the wazoo.