Some people agree with the above suggestion, some people don't. Obviously it's up to the developers to decide what they think is best. They already survived this in-depth endless digging discussion! 
Having said that, I would like to point to this new feature that was introduced in Xenforo after the above interesting discussion: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-1-1-1-released.24730/#post-301477.
When Xenforo introduced the notifications and subsequent stacked feature.... :
... it added to the point/situation outlined in the discussion above that there's quite a big distance between the [Post New Thread] button and the list of threadtitles. I am thinking of some forums on my platform (when I switch to Xenforo) where I would like to show sophisticated notices (which larger pictures/backgrounds etc and I am also thinking of placing advertisments inside it or just below it) and wondering how my members will getting used to find the [Post New Thread] above all these notices, instead of below it (where you would expect it, intuitively).
For me personally the location of the [Post New Thread] in the above screenshot is the most aesthetically pleasing actually. I also like the idea that it's actually next to the breadcrumb as if you are are following the breadcrumb and post a new thread right there in the forum that is listed in the breadcrumb 
.
The question only is, is it always so practically pleasing as well? When you had lots of subforums listed it was not so much practical/intuitive to find this key button 'all the way up there', but the developers changed that position now. Thanks. (Only drawback is that now the position actually switches based on whether you are having subforums shown there).
Thinking about it, it's not so easy to find a good position/solution that is both aesthetically and practically pleasing.
