My initial reaction to the new map system was mixed... the map window was bigger than I'm used to (covered almost my entire visible area), new icons (that didn't necessarily have the best overlapping in my opinion) as well as unnecessary map splitting (NQ really needs 2 maps?)...
... but it's growing on me, and I certainly appreciate all the hard work that has gone into it. Everything new is always a shock to the system at first... Office 2007's ribbon, anyone? (Although I will admit I still cannot stand it and end up using '03 whenever I can, so maybe bad example
).
But back to the OP -- I wholeheartedly agree. Having the loc of the POI appear there when hovered over was something I used quite a lot.