Both the Touch Pro 2 Notification Manager Enhancements and the Menu Enhancements are running on the SSK 1.5 I have installed on my gimped VZW TP.
They might make good defaults for a Rom, or at least included in the SSK folder?
Menu Enhancements (Seems faster than Finger Friendly)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=491457
Notifcation Manager
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=491676
Touch Flo 3D2 is looking promising:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=486471
FingerKeyboard2 is a nice Keyboard replacement
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=487677