That screen is exactly the reason why I personally prefer Android and open source. I know what those options mean, and I appreciate the opportunity to choose.<p>This really is a situation where you can "have your cake and eat it too". For a good user experience you need:<p>1) sane defaults
2) a minimal, apple-like settings screen
3) an "advanced" settings screen<p>The important thing about #3 is that you must make it clear that most users do not need to access that screen. A button on the main settings screen call "advanced options" does not necessarily make that clear -- there are still people that will fiddle with it even though they don't need to. My suggestion would be to make it minimally hidden, such as Firefox's about:config.
The funny thing is that the screenshot (<a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6532001299_e08f052149_b.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6532001299_e08f052149_b.j...</a>) on which this post is based is actually a request of making and unavoidable decision (how the phone should present itself to the computer plugged via USB), and the "clutter" is a clear description what both options mean.
I WANT THAT FUCKING CHOICE. Don't you DARE take away my fucking choice. I WILL CUT YOU! <i>rages</i><p>[I exaggerate here, but I think my point is clear. Not every user thinks choices are a bug. I will switch away from any platform with less choice to any platform with more choice, every single time. And I am not alone.]
The thing that always brings this home to me is how much harder it is (for a developer) to rethink a design to remove the need for an option than to not bother and defer the decision to the user.<p>It's sometimes instinctual in these situations to be lazy, but a small amount of reflection (try having a conversation with an imaginary Steve Jobs) makes it obvious that the time and energy cost for you will be easily justified by the time saving for a non trivial amount of end users.
I think the decision only has to be made at the top level, the graphical UI.<p>One of the things I like about Mac OS X is how solid the command-line "defaults" mechanism is. It has allowed me to expose everything that <i>might</i> be useful to configure, while still trimming the graphical preferences UI and setting a series of factory defaults. So an app can be both simple and flexible at the same time.
Open source segments need the design considerations - Even with its size and limits with scope.<p>An important read but not very relevant to open source whitneyhess.com/blog/2011/04/23/youre-not-a-user-experience-designer-if/<p>The user perspective is the most important gain for any designer/team. Build a team to challenge each other in user perception and details. Settings and preferences are the most valid arguements for such choices.
Clutter is unacceptable.<p>Iterate on much focused segment of your problem.