It'd be great if you would consider adding the option for styling on the applications menu button the same way that Cinnamon or XFCE have it, where it's an actual button rather than just text and an icon. This would make customization much more flexible if i, for example, want an orb like that of Windows Vista or XP. If there is an existing way to do this, any input would be appreciated!
It's not possible to make it "stick out" of the panel like vista did. But you could make an icon that's the xp look. There exist also other 3rdparty widgets that recreate windows start menus (buttons)