I'm with you on the fact that there's only one actions panel, but it will display multiple (scrolling) columns of buttons so it's potential real estate is vast. Besides, one well-organized panel beats the screen clutter caused by a dozen separate panels any day. And as long as you're not creating new actions every fifteen minutes, displaying the panel in button mode is great - alphabetized, color-coded commands - all at your fingertips.
I'm curious as to what you meant by my use of the configurator panel being limited. What kind of things are you doing with configurator that actions can't accomplish?