IPhone :: Many Missing Items After Restore & Sync?

I recently saw that the "Other" file on my iPhone 4 was getting past 3 gigs in size. I recalled reading recommendations here to do a restore on the phone to get this file back to a reasonable size, so I did that, and then after setting my iPhone completely back up, I synced it. The phone was showing me the "connect to iTunes" screen even after the restore was done and a sync had completed.

Now, all kinds of things are missing from my phone and did not show up after syncing (and multiple additional syncs)! All photos and videos are gone, all texting threads, all my alarms, my wallpaper settings, the organization of my apps/folders, my phone number "favorites"... AACK!! My songs and apps are there. I got my calendars and contacts back from iCloud, but so much other stuff is gone. I had given up on retrieving everything else, but now I feel compelled to ask for help. Am I wrong in expecting the restore & sync process to put my phone back to exactly it's condition at the time of a prior sync? How can I get all of these settings and data back? Is there a way I can sync from a specific date before I did the restore? I've never had these issues before.

Info:
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)