It helps me to view the Start Screen as a "fancy-schmancy" Start Menu.
You can see it this way if you tell it to view all apps using the little "-" in the lower right corner (but then it's too small to read)
If you see that, and the problem that I mentioned - then the built-in search function becomes necessary to find stuff.
I've never needed a Start button as I use the Win key on my keyboard to launch both the Start menu (in XP/Vista/Win7) and the Start screen (in Win8).
I had to setup a Surface Pro the other day and was lost without a keyboard - until I remembered the Charm Bar on the right side!
