Having used the ribbon in the other apps for almost 2 years now, I can tell
you all you need to do is set the ribbon to auto hide. Its no different than
having the ribbon exposed, you just click the ribbon title when you need
something and it is right there.
Keeps all your realestate available, but gets rid of the screen hog the
ribbon might appear to be at first.
I collapse all the toolbars in outlook for example, exposing all of the
message in the primary view, allowing the right and left bars to collapse. In
all the other ribbon based apps other than in composing an email, I auto hide
everything.
Just double tap on the menu and its done.
Put that in place on a tablet and you are probably going to be happy with
it...