"f it was the other way around I bet you'd be complaining that you accidentally deleted some photos..."
Ahh no. That's what the trash bin is for. And backups.
"spend that much time in the terminal you would have looked up how to change the problems you're having with some easy defaults commands"
I know already. My point is I should not have to do type out commands with every install. A simple checkbox in preferences would be a better approach; allowing us "power users" to stay power users.
Unhidding the library folder takes one line in terminal, you could even set up a launchd job to run it every day so that you're sure that you aren't missing it. If you spend that much time in the terminal you would have looked up how to change the problems you're having with some easy defaults commands.