By 'worthless first one' I presume you mean the Blinkfeed page? At first glance it does seem to be of limited use but many people (including me) are saying that after the first week or two it becomes an essential part of how they are using the One. Love it or hate it, the fact remains that it is a very well designed and implemented bit of software, as simple or as complicated as you like with a very smooth interface.
That being said, of course it is not to everyones liking and the simple answer to get rid of it (and to get around the 4 panel limit at the same time) is to simply install a different launcher. There are plenty of free alternatives in the Play Store, I use Nova on my tablet because it is nice and simple and even the free version is extremely customisable.