I mean - if you pick up the device of someone else, without getting any introduction (and - a slight bias?), isn't that kind of expected?
I'd argue that we could have similar reactions to iOS, Web OS, S60, S40 etc.. Or really in any interaction. If you didn't read about iOS or never used one of these devices, the home button is _not_ intuitive to figure out. Ignoring all the following warts and hidden features.
So your recollection of your Android experience is probably spot on, but not surprising for me. I cannot imagine that, with the effort you invested in that example session with an Android device, you'd be able to 'grasp' any other platform.
Especially if, as this comment I'm replying to seems to indicate, you just grab the customized device of someone else.
I don't know if I have any grand thesis, I'm just complaining into a textbox.
Bottom-basement minute-one functionality in Android still seems to be in flux, and it's bothersome to me. Hardware buttons become software buttons become contextual buttons become hardware buttons again. Launchers are now widgets are now resizable widgets are now autolayout widgets are now fixed. PIN unlock is now dot unlock is now swipe unlock is now picture unlock is now face unlock is now biometric unlock is now passcode unlock. It all depends on a matrix of Carrier, Manufacturer, Customization, and Major Version that makes it difficult to guess what you're going to expect when you up to a new phone, a new line, a new family, or pick up someone else's device and try to be productive.
On one hand you've got a profound proliferation of designs targeted at a profound proliferation of markets, which is good. But on the other hand you've got these evolving fiefdoms of UI that impose their own vision on top of a platform that is increasingly under the control of Google's own vision. (for instance the end of theming and other 4.0 era mandates) The relearning costs are enormous for the tech-uninvolved and the UI-blind. We don't experience them because we're fluent.
This gray goo platform is now shipping a half billion units a year and the market is still trying to figure out if there should even be a back button. It's unsettling.
