The first looks to much like XP, i think kde should work out its own way, not be an XP or Os X clone. The second solution looks better, but it looks to complex, please KISS. The current KDE menu looks already fine to me and most of the users i know.
My side of the project is dead :?
No, I want to say that this idea as I thought is at the moment not in development cause the KDE menu grows, karamba took much part in this and slicker is under development.
Please suggest your ideas to the developers directly!