dug 
Actually, not exactly–it’s just that I can’t remember the actual term that describes how the virtual representation of a “folder” behaves like a real-world folder in the way it respects Newtonian physics (i.e. it can’t be in two places at once, and if you view it closed, it can’t be open the next time you look at it unless you’ve specifically opened it in the meantime).
Many really smart people have criticised the Aqua Finder for the lack of this behaviour (and many others). I know it pissed me off and it made the whole experience of navigating my content that much less intuitive. Well, as a recent Panther upgrader, I can happily report they’ve fixed it–sort of.
I had by now totally retrained myself as an Aqua user–no more Apple-N keystrokes etc. So imagine my surprise when switching the toolbar off (Option-Apple-T) actually changes the behaviour of the windows as well as their appearance.
So now that all this is in place, what would make this a nicer place for new users would be an “Emulate OS9 Finder” checkbox in the Appearance control panel. Anyone fancy writing the Applescript to do it?