That's Apple conforming to the status-quo of Windows software installs. Mac software installs aren't supposed to put crap all over your drive and hidden items unless it's Adobe's software.

Seems like iPhoto 09 gives a new reason to try iPhoto again. If they've managed to get rid of everything that sucked about iPhoto previously (essentially everything that was in the whole program) they might have a winner. To be fair, what sucked the most was the management aspects. Which seems to be what Picasa seems to handle better.

I'll be giving it a quick look to see if it adds any benefits for me. I'm already using Lightroom as my primary management app.