I am going to *strongly* recommend that you follow the instructions in this FAQ on how to go about installing nUI:
http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=37330
Start with a clean slate... if you're just going to use a compilation of other stuff, then there's no point in you using nUI at all. Start with just nUI, Skada, DBN and Recount and that it. Then *if* you find something that's making you crazy that you don't have it anymore add it... or ask in the forums as it may be there and you're just not seeing it.
As for your missing minimap buttons... look in the minimap buttonbag in nUI... it's the extra button on the bag bar. You'll find all of the "missing" buttons in there.
You do not have to scroll through any buttons with nUI. If you have installed it correctly, then it displays every bar that WoW offers... plus 1.
I would also highly recommend you take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with this post... it shows you what everything is, and where it is, in nUI...
http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=21108 -- along the same lines, it might serve you well to read through this FAQ for an idea of all of the command options that are built in to nUI...
http://www.wowinterface.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=21199 -- those FAQs should help you get a sense of what's going on and help you adjust to nUI a bit better.
I'm not sure what Blizz art it is that you're trying to remove... nUI hides most of it from the default UI, so if you're seeing default blizz art then something is wrong and I'll point you back to the FAQ about how to properly install nUI.