Complaint: Google Hangout Phone Quality - First impression

I am surprised that there are so many little things that have been bothering me from Google's products. They've always seemed very complete with at least the 80%, but recently there seems to be what I think should be common requirements that does not even seem to exist.

Online Status
My biggest issue that I noticed right away was that I am unable to see who in my list are actually online or offline. Sure I can leave a message if they are not there, but how do I know if I am expecting a response soon or never. If I wanted to leave a message, I might as well just used an email. What was the justification to force this upgrade on the phones without this requirement? At least on the PC, you can revert back to the old chat (but I need the hangout to get Google Voice to work).

Voice Quality
Voice in seems to be ok, but voice out seems choppier than when I used the old gchat. The other end seems to have complained that I sound much quieter. I am not sure why this would be different because it would only be an interface change.

Redial
There is no redial. There was an issue with our conference system where I dropped off the call randomly, so I found that I needed to redial but cannot find the option. I am not sure if there is an option from the call window because the call window does not recognize that the call was disconnected and I could not end the call through the interface. I had to close the window and redial in.

Button Tone
Once in the call, the tones of the button is very slight. At first, I thought that I didn't hit the button so I had hit the button again. This makes it difficult for slow automation call systems because I am not sure whether I didn't press the button hard enough, the browser didn't recognize it, or the call system did not recognize it. After a while, I just got used to this.

Speed
Answering calls takes significantly longer. Prior to hangout, it took gchat at most 2-3 seconds to pick up the call and around a second on average. Now, Googe Hangout takes several seconds 5-10 seconds to pick up. This process takes even longer if it is the first call since the browser was opened. Once, I have had the call reach voice mail after I clicked on Answer during the first ring. The calls were much faster in gchat where the call never reached my phone, but now my phone rings a 1-2 times after I click Answer. [[Is there a keyboard shortcut for answering a call?]]



Edit:
9/4 Added Speed, updated Quality