I keep mine on the bottom and hidden, it works fine. Average pointer travel distance to the bottom is always less than one of the sides in any standard resoutio

I keep mine on the bottom and hidden, it works fine. Average pointer travel distance to the bottom is always less than one of the sides in any standard resoution, so you can "fling" the mouse to the bottom quicker (just like the menubar). I also use OSX on a laptop the most, where moving my hand on an imaginary Y-axis of the touchpad is more natural for me than the X axis, which requires more arm movement since my fingers can't curl left and right. I'm probably not the average Mac user, but for me, the dock is more of a status bar for me to see download progress, which apps are still running, etc, so it doesn't matter what maximizes screen space. I don't use it to store icons to launch apps (Spotlight instead), and when first logging in it only contains the Finder, Trash and Downloads folder.