The icon spacing in Vista appears closer because there is a 'hide' slider that win7 doesn't have. At least in this build. The spacing gets closer as you add more icons. I haven't filled up the taskbar yet to see what happens then, but I don't really find it unacceptable, just different.
If you want something to whinge about, try whinging about the fact that many programs install as 'system' user, and taking ownership of the top level folder seems impossible. Or that MS has once again played around with the TCPIP stack and winpcap will no longer load. Find something real to whinge about, then send in a bug report, be part of the solution.