I think the docking mode switch is a pretty major change -it has exactly the 'set tool size at the top of the screen' options you asked for and no corner pods (that doesn't mean it's for you, but it is a very different interface to the classic mode
).
I'm not sure what you mean by 'palette'; do you mean something mimicking a real world palette of paint?
To select colours you can do a few different things:
- use Scraps to mix up your own colours and just ignore/hide the colour picker after that (Scraps are loaded from the Refs menu)
- add a reference image of an actual colour palette of some kind and pick from that
- create or load samples for preset colours (there are lots of defaults in the program and downloadable colours in the forums)
- change the color picker to various different modes (e.g. different RGB or HSL arrangements, a tint/tone, or a precise picker that allows entry of RGB + HSL values - the latter is the default in Docking mode).
(note: I'm not comparing to Essentials because, um, rather biased here as ArtRage staff, but there are a lot of customisation options in ArtRage I can help with).