This has pretty much always been the Apple philosophy. I find it quite perplexing that he thinks this style of treating the user is reminiscent of Microsoft; on the contrary, Apple thinks Microsoft gives the user hassle by leaving them with too many pointless choices to make.

I don't find Apple's perspective objectionable in principle, though I do prefer Microsoft's approach. Most novice users will generally prefer Apple's; whether that's the case in this specific instance is an open question, however. I'll bet most users don't even have a clear mental model of a document editing application distinct from the documents it's editing.