[8125, K-JAM, P4300, MDA Vario General] ZeBoxx:
You are what the MSDN Mobile blog guy would probably call "A battery person" :) Or an agnostic.

It comes down to personal preferences, for the most part. Some people simply -prefer- to see the clock there, instead of a battery, for whatever reasons. You may or may not agree with those reasons :)

Here's some factual bits, though...

the clock

Microsoft replaced the clock that was always visible in one fixed location with another element (the battery) when on the Today screen

This in and of itself isn't a good development. Again, here's a simple analogy - you have a wristwatch, and if you need to know the time, wherever you are, you need only look at your wrist. Now you get home, and *poof* your wristwatch is gone. Strange? Yes.

Microsoft provided no method to let the user change this behavior.

This in general is just silly, as they could have easily anticipated from trial runs that a subset of users, even if it is a relative minority, would prefer the clock there. Microsoft have corrected this for AKU 2.2.

the today item

Microsoft did, however, add the time to the 'Date' Today Item on the Today Screen.

Given the behavior of the clock disappearing from the Taskbar when on the Today Screen, it seemed like a good idea to add the time to the 'Date' Today Item instead. And yes, you are right, that's where a user can look instead. Back to the analogy though - instead of looking at your wrist, where you can always expect to find the time, you now have to look at the clock on the wall. It's more of an annoyance than anything.

This in itself added a new qualm, however - a lot of people did not like the fact that the new 'Date and Time' item takes up 2 lines of Today Screen space (again, no way to switch back to just the Date on 1 line). Some users have an overly full Today Screen as it is, or would just prefer that other items have more space. Many have found solutions to this in one of two new date/time Today Items whose coders have created threads on this forum.

For AKU2.2, this will be even sillier, as users may use the registry tweak to get the Clock back on the Taskbar - but then they'll have the clock on the Taskbar -and- on the Today Screen. Again, those users can use one of the two third party Today Items, but it's silly that they would have to.

the battery indicator

Microsoft added a Battery indicator that cannot be removed

Okay, so now we have a Battery indicator that could be displayed on all screens. However, you may already have a Battery indicator that does this - either using the same type of method (an icon), or by ways of a graphical bar (Batti), etc. Now you have 2 Battery indicators, but you -can't- remove the Microsoft one. So you're stuck with 2. Again, AKU2.2 at least resolves this by switching back to the clock.

Microsoft added a Battery indicator with too low granularity

You might wonder why somebody wouldn't just disable their third party Battery indicator, then. The reason is simple, and the MSDN Mobile Blog guy even agreed: the MS one is horribly low in granularity. What is meant by this, is the following: there are only 3 states. 2 bars, 1 bar, no bars for 60% and 20% thresholds. Not only is this non-linear and non-obvious, for most people this is simply not enough distinction. Even the most humble $25 pas-as-you-go mobile phones have 4, 6 or even 8 bars, as does the MS SmartPhone WM5's battery indicator (also in the taskbar) So even "the battery people" aren't all happy with this switch from the clock to the battery, as the battery indicator is less-than-optimal.

Now for perhaps the silliest thing of all:

There was no need whatsoever to replace the clock with the battery - they could have lived side-by-side.

There is ample space on 240x240 and 240x320 (and certainly the 480x480 and 480x640) devices for extra icons. For example, currently I'm showing 'new message / missed call', [G], 'signal strength', volume and the clock. There is room for at least 3 more icons to the left, although they would be obscuring the application title. This already applies, however, as even this low amount of icons obscures a good portion of longer titles.

Alternatively, there is room to the right on the Today Screen as well, as there is no OK/Close button. When on the Today Screen, the battery indicator could have been placed there, leaving the clock intact. Depending on the user's "Show clock in all applications" setting, either the battery indicator would then be gone in all other applications (if the aforementioned setting is set on) or it would simply slide over to where the clock would otherwise be (if the aforementioned setting is set off). This is a less elegant solution, however.