Darren is completely right on every point. This is my main problem with the iOS system. I've been able to mostly work around it, but it would be so much easier if it just showed up as a mass storage device. Once upon a time when all of the files were DRMed and everything, and the music labels were very wary to let any company sell digital music not tied to a specific device, it may have made sense to hide the music folder from the users (so you couldn't take your 160GB iPod over to a friend and trade music with them).
But we're WAY, WAY, WAY past the point where this makes any kind of sense, and anyone who wants to do that can do it with a wide variety of other devices (including $30 16GB USB drives). Now, this is not, it should be said, a uniquely Apple problem. The Windows Phone 7 devices are similarly locked down (worse really, with them you don't even get MTP support for PHOTOS). And while Android devices are much more capable and consumer-friendly in this regard, actually finding legitimate video content that works on them is next-to impossible (streaming doesn't count, especially not when the apps are so slipshod and not universally deployed). But the requirement to use iTunes to simply sync a song to the device is crap. Of course, there are tons of other apps that can use music files on the iPhone that aren't similarly limited (Dropbox FTW), but they have their own problems.
If Google were to actually take control of their platform and stop letting handset manufacturers ruin it (and if they really focus on the user experience problems they have), I will almost certainly switch with my next phone. If I do, it will be basically entirely because of this limitation. I wish Microsoft would just give up on running their own store and wanting-to-be-Apple, and just make a deal with Amazon, and open up MTP support on their devices That, and a few small fixes to Windows Phone 7, and it would be an ideal candidate. But, alas, I don't see that happening any time soon.
And, Google has their own problems, and I'm skeptical that they'll actually be able to fix their mess in time for my next upgrade cycle. Here's hoping, but we'll see!
PS. I strongly suspect that if Apple ever actually "solves" this problem, it will be through the (suggested in the article) "cloud service" mechanism, not by opening up MTP support on their devices. That won't really help me, but would get a lot of people like Darren to shut up about it. That's actually too bad...
