And putting in all those little checkboxes makes a product a horrible experience for the rest of the world.
It doesn't have to. The measure of a good product, as far as I'm concerned, is the extent to which it can retain all the power the power-users want, while still keeping things simple enough for the non-power-users. OR, better yet, the extent to which it can help non-power-users become power-users.
Apple has done pretty well here. Their desktop is very opinionated with very few checkboxes anywhere, yet many things can be tweaked at the command line.
It doesn't have to. The measure of a good product, as far as I'm concerned, is the extent to which it can retain all the power the power-users want, while still keeping things simple enough for the non-power-users. OR, better yet, the extent to which it can help non-power-users become power-users.