I too love the new PoV! There's a fantastic sense of scale and distance, and the different elements of the scene are better separated and highlighted, while remaining cohesive and natural.
As far as the issue with PT and water transparency, that will be fixed in 4.4. So unless you're planning to render and print really soon, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to resolve it through other means. By the time you're ready for final render I reckon 4.4 will probably be out and you'll be able to do it all in one go *and* probably have better results (the path traced transparency and refraction ought to work a bit better than the current effects do).
- Oshyan