ANR is absolutely fantastic. All this stuff about being in your own little world and not hearing the hostie/aircraft is in my opinion wrong. I have flown in Boeing and other aircraft with ANR and I really love it. You can still hear all the outside stuff you need to and it protects your ears. The problem with one ear off, or with no ANR, is that you need to turn the volume up (or not turn it down!) and it does affect your hearing after a while. Also, it does mean the low frequency fatuiging noise is still there, with ANR it is mostly gone.
The fiddling with the intercom switch is certainly a pain - its so nice on the 75/76 to have voice activated squelch and its hardly high technology. Not sure why they don't do it on other Boeings.