The things I didn't like about my Fire HD 8.9 were the carousel, lack of folder organization, and lack of key apps.
To solve these problems, I added
1Mobile Market from the Fire's browser. This gave me an app store where I was able to get apps Amazon didn't offer. The first one I downloaded was
ADW Launcher. That gave me an Android feel and the ability to have multiple screens with folder organization for my apps and wallpaper I could change at will.
Now I'm happy with my Fire and it does what I need it to do without rooting.