Okay, that's fine, though I don't know why it's annoying. I guess they thought it was a good place to put the options for airplane mode and rebooting. I guess it's also so that you don't accidentally completely turn off the phone. Personally I don't see why it's such an annoyance, as I never completely power off my phone anyway. A single tap of the power button to go to standby is fine for me.

The rest of your points make sense, though. I guess it's a little like Windows, though, I put up with the rest of the stuff because I like what the rest of the platform gives me. In this case, GMail. I can't function without my lables, stars, and conversation view. If I had to use IMAP I think I'd go crazy.