As a LONG-TIME Windows user, I have always HATED maximize. Especially with a large monitor, it's a huge waste of space and a tunnel-visioned way of working on a computer. In the windows world, my preference for spatial computing is probably shared by 2-3 percent of the population (outside of IM/chat window use), as everyone seems to have maximized Word windows showing more white space on the sides than working space in the document itself.
That said, there's a real place for maximized apps. If you use Excel, photo/video editing software, or of course, games and movies (ok, that's full-screen, but it's the same idea), you often want to see as much as you possibly can. The thing is even Apple recognizes this (seemingly grudgingly), and some programs like iMovie/FCP, Aperture, etc. default to a maximized mode. Windows users and recent switchers are upset with the Apple way because they're not really given a choice/control in the matter; if they want to maximize a regular Apple app, they sometimes have to go through some seemingly complex dance of dragging the window to the top-right, moving the mouse across the field to target a tiny resize handle, and dragging it to the bottom left, and even then a lot of times it's not truly "maximized," whereas before they just had to hit a button. Even though I never maximize anything, I can sympathize with that.
It's not a matter of wanting OS X to be a clone of Windows, it's about making it easy to do work in a way that is useful and/or accustomed to. The good news is that I bet most people, after using a Mac for a while, will get used to (and I bet even prefer) operating spatially between multiple windows.
