1: the domino widget style.
Are you sure that was standard in KDE 3? I've never heard of it.
2: in akregator ,option to show number of unread posts after chanel name as akregator 1.2.9(kde 3.5* version) and liferea, - thus hide the column of unread posts. -reason for why: to save space when using the combined view(3 vertical vindow view) , - and that gives you more space to show the posts in, - specialy when you use the option to load full webpage of rss post instead of the default rss text-feed post.
Here is the bug I just filed: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=190474
Add a screenshot of 1.2.9 to the bug. Thanks.
3: Overall the option to use the kde3.5* style to the kde aplications but whitout losing the improved functionality and whitout using to mouch outdated code, more a kde4 version of a kde3 visiual interface style. as in the akregator exampel above.
You can change the widget style to Plastique or another widget style that was available in KDE 3.