I think you're kind of missing the point of why the carrier crapware is bad. It isn't solely because you can't hide it or remove it, it's because in addition to that it is generally really poorly written software that has a terrible user experience and often only exists as an advertisement to some other product or service (ie. NASCAR app). Additionally in the case of some manufacturers and carriers, the standard UI is replaced with potentially less usable, but more importantly non-standard, creating an inconsistant user experience which fragments the platform.

TL;DR: if you buy an iOS device you get a consistant user experience. Thanks to the crapware, from Android you do not.

Why is that even significant? Do you have 5 iphones you use in your every day life that jumping between them would be painful if they had slightly different OSs? Doubtful. Phones have had inconsistent UIs for almost a decade before iphone, and all the iphone did was become the most popular. Razrs had consistent UIs right? But compared with a generic flip phone they were different. I don't see why all of the sudden this fragmentation and inconsistent UI is a such an evil thing or even a noteworthy subject. The manufacturers settings have no effect on apps unless they block the market place entirely. Then again I suppose the people writing articles about this subject are apple-enthusiasts and/or techies. I rarely see Jane Doe writing about fragmentation - and there is a good reason for that.

Pre-installed Apple applications are a whole different league from, for example, a pre-loaded unremovable trailer video for Confessions of a Shopaholic, which actually came on the last phone I had before the 3GS.

While the iOS bundled apps are usually quite good, what if you really don't like the built-in e-mail client?

I remember apps being rejected based on replicating functionality that already existed in Apple-branded apps. Is this still common?

The reason you can't hide Newsstand in a folder is that it IS a folder.

Limiting yes but it's not "preventing" you, it's just a constraint.

I do agree that it's irritating that you can't uninstall certain stuff though. Stocks is the main example which I think a majority of users have little or no interest in and up until iOS5 the Apple weather app was decidedly meh.