I really like your observations, and have noticed pretty much the same thing.

Your point about the boolean arguments especially, I can't tell you the number of times I've painstakingly documented the parameter in the /// section of the function (in c#) just to make sure it's clear what passing false actually means.

I should just create an enum{ doTheDance,dontDoTheDance} with two values instead, often thought about it, but for some reason never actually done that.