@SkyLTD - I think it's all about what you're used to. Just like you can go from tab to tab in ACR you can collapse and expand each section of the LR Develop module, so while it defaults to "all there" you can compact those sections you don't use. But I realize that after learning one way any other way is going to seem foreign, because everything you mention about PS/ACR & Bridge are there for you in Lightroom between the Library and Develop modules. Having toyed with PS and ACR first before getting LR I have to say that I much prefer the LR interface, so to each their own.
As for my workflow, I import RAW files to Lightroom, and perform my basic adjustments to the RAW file there - apply lens profiles, crop, straighten and do basic lighting adjustments. Depending on the photo and what I want/need to do with it, I may do 100% of my work in Lightroom or send it to Photoshop to finish it (this is akin to the step that leaves ACR and moves you to Photoshop in SkyLTD's flow). Generally I'll use Photoshop to manage the invoking of Nik, onOne and any other tools I want to use rather than calling them from Lightroom since each tool will form a new layer instead of a new file. When I'm done I collapse the layers and save it as a PSD file which is added to my Lightroom Library automatically. I'll then go back to Lightroom and sometimes apply a couple more tweaks there as I find some color manipulation is easier using the Camera Raw tools. I do all my JPEG creation using the Export module in Lightroom. Most of the time I will keep both the original RAW file and the PSD, archiving them off my laptop after some time.
As for panoramas and focus stacking, I will do my basic adjustments in Lightroom and then call the appropriate Photoshop Merge process from the LR Library module.