When I switched to Macs, I abandoned the concept of toggling maximization state altogether. Each window gets a workspace, and four fingers in a direction takes me back and forth, or shows me all windows. No toggling, no alt-tabbing, etc. I find this excessively more convenient, but as usual, YMMV.
P.S. I do agree the + button has absolutely inane behavior. I just like the workspace method more than I ever liked toggling maximization state, moving windows, and alt-tabbing.
I kind of feel like this is where OS X is almost at a moment of brilliance, but hasn't quite reach there yet (and is hampered a bit by legacy considerations)...on just a single screen, full-screen mode works almost exactly like you describe and is a joy to use.
P.S. I do agree the + button has absolutely inane behavior. I just like the workspace method more than I ever liked toggling maximization state, moving windows, and alt-tabbing.