[jmillikin]

  > Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable
  > Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have
  > to put up with these arbitrary changes?

You can pay for Gmail, if you want to. Paying will remove the ads. Paying won't cause Google to halt all changes to the user interface forever. I expect you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service that does not periodically change parts of the user interface to better serve the majority of their audience.

If you want a bookmarkable full-screen compose page, that is still available. Go to http://mail.google.com/?ui=html , then click compose, and bookmark that page.

[psweber]

You are right about all UIs changing, but the OP is talking about a new version of compose that Google is testing. It removes the full screen compose page and treats compose in a similar way to gChat conversations.

http://learn.googleapps.com/new-gmail-compose/new-compose-vi...

The new design has messaging that says the old version of the compose page will go away. I agree with the OP. Freaking terrible news. I only want to see my inbox a few times a day. Not every time I compose. I am a fan of the new visual style, though.

[marssaxman]

> I expect you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service that does not periodically change parts of the user interface

...and this is one good reason not everything should be a web service. I like my core tools not to change until I decide to change them.

[fakeer]

There are some paid solutions but all them are either not accepting new users or require you to have more than one users(5 or 10 generally) like AlienCamel, ATMail an likes of Rackspace email hosting. They aren't Gmail carbon copies.

I would like to have a paid email service for just one user with beautiful web interface and IMAP. Options like FastMail &c fail at more than one.