I really don't see the big deal. I think that most people who regularly use Google apps do not access it from the Google homepage. Heck, you don't even have a direct link up there to Calendar or Docs or several other useful apps (you have to click the drop-down).

100% of the time that I go to the Google homepage, I'm there to do a search. This is usually on other people's computers. Otherwise I search from the address bar in Chrome or the search bar in Firefox.