You are mistaking the version, 11.10, with Unity, the default desktop
environment. You can get the benefits of the upgrade and use another DE. You
can install GNOME Shell or get the fallback of GNOME with the old panel
which is as close as you are going to get. Ever. GNOME Classic is near the
end of its shelf life, not Ubuntu's decision BTW.

People who do not like Unity have options, besides sticking with an old
version. LTS users do not have to upgrade to 11.10. They can upgrade
directly to 12.04 when it comes out next April. Users of other versions must
follow the 6 month cycle and go from 11.04 - 11.10 -12.04 or do a clean
install. With 12.04 GNOME Classic will be DOA pretty much with every distro
but Debian which is 2 years behind the times. Get used to it.

Users might as well upgrade now and use a different DE and try Unity as
well. I think that you need to give it at least a week. You may like out
more than you think. If not, then you will have given an honest effort. You
can always fallback to the panel version or even try KDE or XFCE which
continue to use the old desktop motifs.