I don't know what UI you had on the Streak before, but was this where you needed to drag the little green padlock upwards from bottom right? I got that lock-screen for the first time when I reflashed my HTC with clean non-HTC Android, and it puzzled me for some moments too.

The apps button is the little chequerboard at centre-bottom in your second pic. No, I don't think it is immediately intuitive either!