Ahhh… You are talking about adding new content to your library and not about synching content between your library and a device.
However, the requirement that you add content to your library before you can synch it to your devices is not a change from the way things worked in iTunes at all.
I know it’s not a change. That’s my complaint. I would expect to be able to drag files from my hard drive to the device. The fact that I can’t makes the experience worse than iTunes.
However, the requirement that you add content to your library before you can synch it to your devices is not a change from the way things worked in iTunes at all.