Downgrade OSX Lion

I'll be completely open about this; I really don't understand the rationale behind the UI and UX changes Apple chose to implement in the latest iteration of Mac OSX. The sum result of the 250-plus alterations and additions have rendered it unsuitable for my use, particularly the changes to the Finder coupled with the poor performance of the WiFi connectivity, My tactic for this was fairly long-winded...

1. backup everything to an external disk
2. wipe the macbook air using the restore USB key
3. install OSX Snow Leopard 10.6, customised to only include the parts of iLife I use
4. Update to 10.6.8
5. copy documents, etc within the /Users folder back from the backup
6. copy the applications I use back to the laptop
7. copy the matching folders for those applications to /Library or ~/Library
8. Setup iCal to sync with Google
9. Sync with MobileMe

This worked for the vast majority of the applications. It didn’t for Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 - I had to reinstall this and re-enter the license key. Also VMWare Fusion had problems and needed the installer. The other task was to rename the laptop in the ‘sharing’ system preferences pane - so I could tell the difference in my backups, and to move the 100gb sparse bundle file from my time capsule to stop it wanting to delete it. This is barely even a downgrade as so much as a reinstall, but I’m so happy to have a useable laptop again.