I used SPB MS for a few months before going back to Sense / CHT2.0 combo. Both products have their + and -... Generally I found that after a first few weeks SPB tended to develop some sort of lag... even tho it uses less RAM it's not as snappy as Sense. But the difference is minimal, after a bit of tweaking both SPB and Sense were pretty fast. Esp. once I learned that removing the built-in WM6.5 start menu skin releases tons of RAM (about 15 MB). In the end it all comes down to features. The CHT2.0 release adds most features of SPB MS while retaining many features unique to Sense and CHT.
I'm not going to bash or promote either product here, it's a matter of personal choice, they are both good.
That said...
1) I would stay away from MSKip. I did install it and can't say I gained any functionality, just some eye candy, and it did slow things down a bit.
2) The easiest way - for me at least - to use Calendar and Tasks with SPB was to add an empty link button to the right of calendar app (see the yellow circle in the attached image). This way I could launch my task list from calendar and keep the real estate.
3) CHT calendar / task widget is
vastly superior to SPB. Sorry..
SPB MS
MS.jpg
CHT2.0 / Sense Calendar & Tasks - shows how calendar frame can be dragged down to show more appointments. (The one on the left is expanded, the one in the middle is normal view). Same can be done with tasks. By making Cal or Tasks the topmost widget on screen, you can drag them when needed to take up the entire screen (I didn't need this, but can be very handy for some). Reverting back when done is very fast. There's also any number of pages with links (one shown out of 3 that I use), and widgets like music player, weather etc. that I don't use.
CHT1.jpg CHT2.jpg