no launchers in your panel, no additional panels
The panel is the launcher, and it's scrollable when it gets full so that you don't need (but still might like) another one. It's a "dock". A dock is a window switcher + app launcher rolled into one, which is what both Microsoft and Apple made default in their OSes, and now Gnome and Ubuntu. Of course, Linux has had docks long before anyone else.
Most user complaints stem from people who used a development release (4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3) of KDE 4 and thought it would measure up to a stable release (3.5).
Maybe they should consider using appropriate labels then for those "development releases". Maybe stick an Alpha there, a Beta here, you know, something helpful.
Regardless, I can't stand KDE4. As mentioned all over, the interface is incredibly cluttered. While I don't like Gnome for not including more easily accessible advanced options which could be simply hidden/buried one level down, until the KDE developers learn to keep things simple and bury their options hardly anyone uses, and basically actually start heeding user interface design and workflow, Gnome will have to continue to be my DE of choice.
For large values of one, one equals two, for small values of two.