Yeah, it annoys me. With notification centre in iOS6, it was just that top edge that you had to keep away from, which is quite easy. But now you have to keep away from both the top and bottom edge, you feel kind of sandwiched in, which feels wuite suffocating.
Speaking of hand gestures, I 'd like them to do a 5-finger rotating hand gesture to re-orientate the screen when orientation lock is on. I pretty much use my iPad in landscape mode all the time, but there are times when I have to/are better off using it in portrait. In times when I'm lying on my side in bed, in order to change the orientation, I must use the physical switcher on the side of the iPad to deactivate orientation lock, rotate my iPad according to gravity, and re-lock, which is more effort than a simple 5-fingered rotating hand gesture.