Once again, you're way ahead of the curve. :)
Seems you already looked at
those patches too.
Only one you provided no comment:
04-safely_remove_umount_progress_dialog.patch
Seems that might be useful, but your decision!
I meant to comment on that one as well, but didn't type anything apparently.
Oops!
That one duplicates functionality as well; 3.5.11 has a progress popup
that appears if the unmount takes more than half a second or so. The icon
is also removed at the end of the unmount, provided HAL can disconnect the
device from the system properly. At the very least, the icon changes to
the unmounted version.
Tim