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.