Really the main differences between the stages of screenshots is the shrinking of the gauge size and inventory window. Your post makes it sound like you preferred the first screenshots, but those were with the LARGER gauges so i'm a bit confused

I think the smaller gauges are more your style since you said you wanted smaller player/target windows.
The inventory window can be open full, docked, or hidden completely. Up to you. It can be toggled as normal visible/invisible with the hotkey (defauntl I) and even remembers its previous state. So if you have it docked and hide the window, next time you show it it will still be docked.. If its full size when you hide it, it comes back fullsize.
The experience window is a customizble window. Its a 3 way window. You can show all of the 3 gaugues, 2 of the gauges, or only 1 gauge depending on what you want. Just resize the window and it works like magic
Also the player and Target windows can be resize to hide/show the effect icons as desiured.. And the player window can also be resized to hide/show both effects and concentration if desired.